Why does sendmail think its host is named `localhost' is it named?

Kevin Darcy kcd at daimlerchrysler.com
Mon Feb 6 23:31:38 UTC 2006


I'm not so sure this is even DNS-related. How is your sendmail.cf 
configured for name-resolution, e.g. does it look at the hosts file, 
and, if so, what does the "localhost" entry there look like? Is there 
are any explicit reference to localhost in sendmail.cf?

- Kevin

Harry Putnam wrote:

>NOVICE alert!
>
>Setup: Gentoo linux (kernel 2.6.15)
>       bind-9.3.2
>       sendmail-8.13.4
>
>I've just started running bind-9 and learning what I need to know to
>serve a small home lan as an Authenticating nameserver.
>
>It seems to be working ok and I can do lookups of my own (private)
>hosts, then anything that needs to go outside my network works too.
>
>I see one phenomena that puzzles me.  My sendmail logs show that
>sendmail thinks my host is named `localhost'.
>It can also be seen in the righthand side of local mail like:
>  reader at localhost.local.net0
>And the message ids of command line mail are (simulated):
>   Message-ID: 0970707070707 at localhost.local.net0
>
>My hosts name is reader.local.net0
>
>The hostname program:
>    hostname
>     reader
>
>The domainname program:
>    domainname
>     local.net0
>
>Both know how this host is named.  I wondered if sendmail would be
>getting what it uses for hostname from a dns lookup instead of what is
>returned by hostname?  And if so why `named' is telling it `localhost'.
>
>Almost certainly some novice error on my part... but what?
>
>======================================
>zone file:
>
>$TTL 1D
>local.net0.     IN SOA    reader.local.net0.  hostmaster (
>                        200405191 ; serial
>                        8H        ; refresh
>                        4H        ; retry
>                        4W        ; expire
>                        1D )      ; minimum
>; define the authoritative name server
>local.net0.     IN     NS      reader.local.net0.
>; [HP 01/30/06 09:56 The 10 indicates priority [lower is higher]]
>                MX      10 reader.local.net0
>; define domain functions with CNAMEs
>;[HP 01/29/06 08:29  ]depot           CNAME   stallman
>;[HP 01/29/06 08:29  ]www             CNAME   cerf
>;localhost.local.net0.		CNAME		reader.local.net0.
>;tic.local.net0.        	CNAME    reader.local.net0.
>smtp.local.net0.         CNAME		reader.local.net0.
>
>; just in case someone asks for localhost.local.net0
>localhost.local.net0.        A       127.0.0.1
>; our hostnames, in alphabetical order
>ansil.local.net0.           A       192.168.0.21
>bjp.local.net0.             A       192.168.0.16
>reader.local.net0.          A       192.168.0.4
>fw.local.net0.              A       192.168.0.20
>harvey.local.net0.          A       192.168.0.22
>mob2.local.net0.            A       192.168.0.3
>
>====================
>
>Reverse pointers file:
>
>;
>; reverse pointers for 192.168.0.0 subnet
>;
>$TTL 1D
>0.168.192.in-addr.arpa.  IN SOA  reader.local.net0. reader.reader.local.net0. (
>              200405190  ; serial
>              28800      ; refresh (8 hours)
>              14400      ; retry (4 hours)
>              2419200    ; expire (4 weeks)
>              86400      ; minimum (1 day)
>              )
>; define the authoritative name server
>4.0.168.192.in-addr.arpa.  IN NS reader.local.net0. reader.reader.local.net0.
>; our hosts, in numeric order
>1.3.0.168.192.  IN PTR  mob2.local.net0.
>2.4.0.168.192.  IN PTR  reader.local.net0.
>3.16.0.168.192. IN PTR  bjp.local.net0.
>4.20.0.168.192. IN PTR  fw.local.net0.
>5.21.0.168.192. IN PTR  ansil.local.net0.
>6.22.0.168.192. IN PTR  harvey.local.net0.
>
>
>
>
>
>  
>




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