[arch-general] [PATCH] send hostname to DHCP server / router

[Xavier]

On Sat, Nov 21, 2009 at 1:02 AM, Suraj Kurapati <sunaku at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> For the longest time, the default ArchLinux networking setup had one
> deficiency:  it would not send the machine hostname to the DHCP server
> / router when acquiring a DHCP lease.  As a result, I was never able
> to ping/ssh my ArchLinux system by its hostname from other machines in
> my home network --- instead, I was always forced to type out my
> ArchLinux system's IP address in full.
>
> I looked high and low across the 'net before I finally found the
> answer in the dhcpcd.conf man page:  the solution is to add the
> following line to your /etc/dhcpcd.conf file:
>
>  hostname
>
> One thing that confused me is this line in the default ArchLinux
> /etc/dhcpd.conf file:
>
>  # dhcpcd-run-hooks uses these options.
>  option domain_name_servers, domain_name, domain_search, host_name
>
> The "option host_name" part *seems* like it would send your machine's
> hostname to the DHCP server, but it really doesn't.  Maybe that's a
> bug?
>
> I request the developers in charge of the default ArchLinux networking
> setup to make the above change, so that ArchLinux systems send their
> hostnames to the DHCP server (and therefore can be
> pinged/ssh'ed/accessed by their hostname) out of the box!
>
> Thanks for your consideration.
>

This is not directly related to your request, but still quite similar
so I thought I would mention it.
My openwrt router runs dnsmasq which reads these two files :
/etc/hosts : association between ip and hostname
/etc/ethers : association between mac and hostname

When I add a box the my network, I just need to know its mac and add
one line to these two files.
Then I know which ip it will always uses, and I also know which
hostname to use just by looking at the table.
So in fact, I don't care much about the real hostname of the box (it's
better if it matches but not necessary)