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On Thu, 3 Jul 2003, Jeremy C. Reed wrote:

>On Thu, 3 Jul 2003, Jim Wise wrote:
>
>> Although not quite obviously so, `domainname' sets or gets the _NIS_
>> domain name of the current machine, and so is not relevant (and harmful
>> if set) if NIS is not being used:
>
>Can you tell me more (or point me to some references) about it being
>harmful if domainname is set when NIS is not used?

a.) as a safety check, /etc/rc.d/yp* will not start if the domainname is
    not set, even if turned on -- this double check against getting yp
    information from NIS if we're not intentionally bound to a domain
    which makes sense is a very good idea.  In traditional startup
    scripts, where the presence/absence of an NIS domain name was used
    as a test of whether NIS was desired, this was even more the case.

b.) traditionally, autoconf and other scripts have relied on
    `domainname' being set or unset to determine if NIS is in use

so s,harmful,potentially harmful, if you want, but the point holds.  :-)

>Thanks,
>
>   Jeremy C. Reed
>   http://bsd.reedmedia.net/
>

- -- 
				Jim Wise
				jwise@draga.com
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