Script Test [OT]

Ed Greshko Ed.Greshko at greshko.com
Tue Sep 9 08:44:30 UTC 2008


joachim.backes at rhrk.uni-kl.de wrote:
> Cameron Simpson wrote:
>> On 08Sep2008 21:04, Kevin J. Cummings <cummings at kjchome.homeip.net>
>> wrote:
>>> Alan Evans wrote:
>>>> On Mon, Sep 8, 2008 at 6:40 AM, Steven Tardy <sjt5 at its.msstate.edu>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>> kwhiskerz wrote:
>>>>> man hostid
>>>> On my Fedora 9...
>>>> $ hostid
>>>> 00000000
>>>>
>>>> Now I haven't bothered to check any other machines, but my initial
>>>> impression is that this is not going to work...
>>> I just checked the hostids on my 2 primary machines on the same
>>> local  network.  They just seem to be encodings of the machine's IP
>>> addresses.  And since both are PC class machines, the addresses look
>>> to be syllable swapped (but not byte swapped).
>>>
>>> 192.168.6.94 and 192.168.6.106
>>> a8c05e06     and a8c06a06
>>>
>>> So, I have to ask, does the machine you tried it on have an IP address?
>>
>> So, let us turn to the docs: man hostid says:
>>
>>   hostid - print the numeric identifier for the current host
>>   [...]
>>   The full documentation for hostid is maintained as  a  Texinfo  manual
>>   [...]
>>
>> Gah. I hate this info-so-no-f'n-man-page rubbish!
>> But let's go: info hostid:
>>     21.4 `hostid': Print numeric host identifier.
>>   =============================================
>>   `hostid' prints the numeric identifier of the current host in
>>   hexadecimal.  This command accepts no arguments.  The only options are
>>   `--help' and `--version'.  *Note Common options::.
>>      For example, here's what it prints on one system I use:
>>        $ hostid
>>        1bac013d
>>    On that system, the 32-bit quantity happens to be closely related
>> to the
>>    system's Internet address, but that isn't always the case.
>>
>> Gah! Again!
>>
>> I don't think I'd rely on hostid for anything:-(
>>
>> Cheers,
>
> Hi,
>
> seeing the same (using dhcp for getting an ip address):
>
> backes at eule [backes]: hostid
> 00000000
>
> backes at eule [backes]: ifconfig
> eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0C:76:C0:40:36
>           inet addr:192.168.179.182  Bcast:192.168.179.255
> Mask:255.255.255.0
>           UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
>           RX packets:284 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
>           TX packets:256 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
>           collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
>           RX bytes:86392 (84.3 KiB)  TX bytes:25620 (25.0 KiB)
>           Interrupt:22 Base address:0x2000
>
> Not seeing this effect on systems without dhcp usage.
>
> Regards
>
FYI, the hostid does not use information from ifconfig.  It looks for a
match between "hostname -s" and information in /etc/hosts.  It then uses
the IP address contained there.  No match then hostid returns 00000000.


-- 
Television is a medium because anything well done is rare. -- attributed
to both Fred Allen and Ernie Kovacs




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