Quoting Robert J. Alexander ([EMAIL PROTECTED]): > If you do a "strace 127.0.0.1" you will see that the host command > command used in this way WILL take a look to your /etc/nsswitch.conf > file and if the latter has a hosts: files,dns line in it, will open > your /etc/hosts file, read from it and retrieve the corresponding name > WITHOUT EVER going to a DNS (can check also with IPTRAF or TCPDUMP if > you are an overly suspicious character 8->). > > Conversely if you do a "strace localhost" with the same situation host > will totally ignore /etc/nsswitch and as you and the man page state, > attempt a DNS query. > > This mixed behavior of the host command I discovered makes it an > unreliable debugging to tool.
Hmm. Did you file a bug report? This does seem to be non-specified behavior. Mike Stone
