ifconfig accepting hostname as ipv4 address

[Jonathan McKeown]

On Saturday 09 June 2012 23:29:02 Kevin Oberman wrote:
> On Sat, Jun 9, 2012 at 12:37 AM, Garrett Cooper <yanegomi at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >    I agree that it's not the best configuration in the world, as it
> > would only work 100% if a machine had proper DNS records or a
> > definitive hosts file.
> >    There are already enough bugs with static IP configurations and
> > hostnames as-is *I'm looking at you mountlate* -- no sense to
> > introduce more potentially buggy interoperability that only works in a
> > handful of niche cases.
>
> The idea was that you could enter all of the local interface names in
> /etc/hosts and than just put the names into the ifconfig commands. It
> was handy for keeping track of what port connected where on systems
> that had numerous interfaces, though this was more common in the day
> of async serial lines and modems.
>
> I'll admit that I have mixed feelings about its practicality today,
> though it does not hurt anything, as far as I can tell.

It works fine as long as the machine has its own address in /etc/hosts - does 
anyone not do that?

Also, note that I'm not suggesting adding any functionality at all; just 
replying to a suggestion that functionality be /removed/ - by pointing out 
that we find it useful and would rather not see it go.

Jonathan