hostname variable in attachment replacement

[David Lee]

On Thu, 6 Aug 2009, Randal, Phil wrote:

> Erik Bloodaxe wrote:
> [...]
>>>> Is there a way to have a variable in the attachements that replace
>>>> unacceptable file types and content that expands to the host names.
>>>>
>>>> I.e. in stored.filename.message.txt in etc/reports/en
>>>>
>>>> I want a line saying
>>>>
>>>> File is in: $(HOSTNAME) in $quarantinedir/$datenumber/$id
>>>>
>>>> so that my sysadmins can see which of the many servers the file is
>>>> on as the standard reports give them no indication of which server
>>>> to get the file from.
>>>>
>>>> I have tried all the obvious
> [...]
> I see that on CentOS 5.3 too, so it is no just your installation.

Dare I say "me, too"?

I seem to recall reporting this (empty 'HOSTNAME') a few years ago. 
We're now on CentOS 5.3 with MS 4.76.24, and a configuration that tries 
not to change things unnecessarily.  Still seeing it (although our MS 
configuration only rarely invokes pathways that need it.)

I get the feeling that the _intended_ behaviour is for MS's "HOSTNAME" 
variable to try to inherit a default value from somewhere (i.e. to try to 
avoid being empty).

This intention might be the result of "uname -n" or similar, and probably 
for a shell HOSTNAME variable, if any, to override it.  Fair enough. 
Indeed, when I ssh to a box, there is such a variable present on such a 
login.

But I suspect that, on a reasonably "out of the box" Fedora/CentOS/Redhat 
installation, by the time "/etc/init.d" is starting MS, neither is 
HOSTNAME yet set, nor is MS getting it from executing "uname -n" (or 
similar).

Shouldn't the startup algorithm be something like (pseudo-perl):

    $HOSTNAME = if $ENV{'HOSTNAME'} was set
                then $ENV{'HOSTNAME'}
                else `uname -n`;
                # i.e. inherit env.var. HOSTNAME
                # else fall back to using system hostname

Sorry that's so vague.  But I hope it helps.


Jules: could you (a) confirm the intention (for HOSTNAME to be non-empty) 
(b) outline the intended algorithm to achieve that at "/etc/init.d"-driven 
startup?

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