Re: How do I configure domain names for my locally-networked computers?

This looks like exactly the sort of function I am looking for. But I'm
curious: if not by IP address, how does dnsmasq map names to computers? By
MAC address?

The DHCP protocol allows the client to send some additional info, such as
its own hostname (not DNS name, just some random name you decided to give
to the machine). The DHCP server is free to ignore it, but can use it just
as well. E.g. it can be used to give out "static" IPs, or it can be used
(as is done by dnsmasq) to automatically build a DNS map.

Of course, if two machines connect with the same hostname, you may not
always get the result you want. I think the behavior is tailored to the
case where the same machine sometimes connects via different interfaces (so
the mac address may change, but dnsmasq assumes it's really the same
machine).

Note that the dhcp client that comes by default under Debian does not send
a hostname by default and doesn't even seem to provide a way to tell it to
"send the machine's hostname", so instead you have to manually add to the
/etc/dhclient.conf the machine's name with

send host-name "<myhostname>";


-- Stefan
.

Relevant Pages

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