Re: init_system_name fqdn?

[Stefan Monnier]

> The hostname of the machine I'm using is "cosmos", because that's what I
> put in /etc/hostname.  Its FQDN is cosmos.phy.tufts.edu, and that's
> where my email address is.

My understanding of the current state of email in the world is that such
a situation is extremely rare nowadays (even though it was pretty
standard 20 years ago, indeed).

> I don't know what was causing this delay,

Misconfigurations.

> but certainly we don't want it.  Can "hostname -f" cause
> a similar delay?

I think so, yes (IIRC this happened  when /etc/nsswitch.conf would say
to consult a DNS server, while the server mentioned in /etc/resolv.conf
was currently unreachable).

> Would you suggest not guessing at all and requiring the installer to set
> mail-host-address or the user to set user-mail-address before mail can
> be sent?

Yes.  I think nowadays, guessing the user-mail-address based on
"username" and "system-name" is just hopeless.  A better basis for the
guess could be ~/.gitconfig.

If we want "emacs -Q" to get a valid email without prompting you every
time, then we need to store the email somewhere else than ~/.emacs.


        Stefan