bug#6235: hostname and -b option (original) (raw)

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From: Nelson H. F. Beebe
Subject: bug#6235: hostname and -b option
Date: Thu, 20 May 2010 15:45:01 -0600 (MDT)

We noticed recently that Ubuntu's /bin/hostname has this option

-b, --boot            set default hostname if none available

and uses it in /etc/init/hostname.conf.

However, the GNU version from coreutils-1.8 lacks that option.

Unfortunately, Ubuntu's startup script puts /usr/local/bin ahead of /bin and /usr/bin, thus getting a version of hostname that chokes on the -b option. We patched the configuration file to force an explicit path:

exec /bin/hostname -b -F /etc/hostname

Would it be reasonable to consider adding support in coreutils for the -b option?

At my site, I have

% cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=9.10
DISTRIB_CODENAME=karmic
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 9.10"

% uname -r
2.6.31-21-generic-pae

% /bin/hostname --version
hostname 2.95

[I'm not urging that this be done, merely that it be discussed. In my view, Ubuntu is at fault for introducing nonstandard options, and messing up the boot PATH, and failing to use explicit paths on critical boot-time commands. We had issues a few months ago with GNU inetutils that have since been resolved by adding support in inetutils for an option expected by Ubuntu.]