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Re: init_system_name fqdn?


From: Stefan Monnier
Subject: Re: init_system_name fqdn?
Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2017 11:29:22 -0400
User-agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/26.0.50 (gnu/linux)

> A while back, init_system_name tried to find the system's fully
> qualified domain name.  Then this code was taken out, and now it just
> uses whatever gethostname returns.  I think this is a poor choice.

It depends on what it's used for.  What is your use for it where it's
a poor choice?

> Many systems are configured without a fully qualified hostname.
> Then when you send mail you get
> "i-did-not-set--mail-host-address--so-tickle-me" in your from address.

Indeed, gethostname doesn't return a good choice for mail-host-address.
But of all the machines I have had access to in the last 10 years, not
a single one had an FQDN that was a good choice for
mail-host-address either.  So the only "advantage" of the old code was
that it was more complex and could delay startup by 2min in some cases.

> Of course this is easily fixed by setting mail-host-address,
> e.g., in site-start.el, but then when you go to report a bug and say
> "emacs -Q" ... "M-x report-emacs-bug" you are back to "so tickle me".

How do you suggest Emacs discovers that it should use
"iro.umontreal.ca" (hint: no machine has such an FQDN)?

[ Actually, even that is dicey: nowadays "username @ mail-host-address"
  is likely to be generally wrong.  Instead, every user has her own
  choice of mail service, so user `foo` would want to use
  address@hidden, user `bar` will want to use
  address@hidden  ]


        Stefan




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