RE: [MiNT] kernel development

["Julian Reschke" <reschke@muenster.de>]

> From: owner-mint@fishpool.com [mailto:owner-mint@fishpool.com]On Behalf
> Of Martin-Eric Racine
> Sent: Thursday, June 24, 1999 12:32 PM
> To: MiNT List
> Cc: Frank Naumann
> Subject: [MiNT] kernel development
>
>
> Hello,
>
> I noticed we have two similar files, /etc/host and /etc/hostname
> whose usage remains unclear.  While /etc/hostname is used by the
> 'hostname' command, the other file remains a mystery.
>
> Anyhow, I noticed that HOSTNAME is evaluated by 'login' and the
> shells, plus a lot of other things.  While one could purposely
> define "export HOSTNAME=`hostname`" in their /etc/profile and
> /etc/csh.cshrc (or in mint.cnf), why not have the kernel look
> for /etc/hostname file and , if found, export the value as the
> HOSTNAME string?

Because it's not up to the kernel to do something like this. Check out Unix
systems -- they never go out, read config files and export environment
variables.