[OpenIndiana-discuss] mailhost and other "standard" hostnames

[Jim Klimov]

Back in Solaris 8 or so, the bundled sendmail included a default
smart_host definition, so that machines internal to a network
could collect and perhaps relay their messages on one dedicated
SMTP server. For this the /etc/mail/sendmail.cf file included

DSmailhost$?m.$m$.

This line defined SMART_HOST to be "mailhost.$domainname", so the
proper SMTP relay(s) could then be set up in local DNS without
touching the freshly rolled-out clients.

I guess there were other similar names, with a "loghost" still
winding up in the /etc/hosts file. If it were found via DNS, it
could nicely provide for finding a central logging server of an
organization ;)

What to the esteemed list members think about the merits of such
"hardcoded" names for particular services' servers? Are (or Were)
other such names known? Would there be some benefit if a distro
(OI) provided them in the default config files?

I, for one, often reconfigure new Solaris machines' sendmail.cf
to include the "mailhost.$domainname" definition (that DS line
became undefined since approximately Solaris 10), because our
LAN does define several relays as aliases to "mailhost" name.

Thanks for your thoughts,
//Jim Klimov