Re: PATCH: CygWin port enhancement - 2nd revision

From: Robert Collins <robert.collins@dont-contact.us>
Date: 18 Aug 2001 11:43:24 +1000

On 17 Aug 2001 21:24:02 +0200, Guido Serassio wrote:
> Hi,
>
>
> >This can only occur if a user has deliberately chosen to have that
> >happen.
>
> Sorry, but at this point I'm confused:
>
> - Cygwin use Windows host file, but before now I thought that it use
> /etc/hosts.
 
All the cygwin internal calls use the windows host file. if you install
(say) bind 8 & it's resolver library, then that will use /etc/hosts -
and other programs that have their own resolver - say squid - will also
use /etc/hosts. Which is why for correct operation it must be a symlink
to the real windows hosts file.

> - /etc/host is (must be ?) a symlink to the Windows hostfile.
>
> But, I have just installed Cygwin, and there is no /etc/host symlink or
> file, so you say that I must make this symlink ? But if this true, how many
> users make this symlink ?
> Why this is not made from Cygwin setup ?

How many users use programs that implement their own dns resolver? Not
many. It's not in setup because no-one has made the time to patch
setup.exe to do that.

> > > So, as long this CygWin problem is unresolved, we must choice what
> >default
> > > host file to use, IMO, is better use the same of the OS, in Windows
> >system
> > > directory.
> >
> >Errm, if we do that I don't think we'll cause problems, but I suspect we
> >will get at least 1 bug report on that that we wouldn't otherwise have
> >gotten :].
>
> But also if the hostfile symlink it's not made automatically from Cygwin
> setup ....

Exactly - Henrik's suggestion was to alter squid to iterate through the
list of paths and use the first existing file. A file list of
"/etc/hosts <win9x hosts> <winnt hosts>" will work correctly in all
cases, with no runtime detection needed.

Rob

> Guido
Received on Fri Aug 17 2001 - 19:43:05 MDT

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