Changes/FallbackHostname

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Fallback Hostname

Summary

This proposal is for the fallback hostname for server like variants of Fedora to use localhost as the fallback hostname.

Owner

• Name: Dusty Mabe (Fedora CoreOS)
• Email: dustymabe@redhat.com
• Name: David Duncan (Fedora Cloud)
• Email:
• Name: Paul Whalen (Fedora IoT)
• Email:
• Name: Michel Alexandre Salim (Fedora Server)
• Email:
• Name: Neal Gompa (Fedora Server)
• Email:

Current status

• Targeted release: Fedora Linux 37
• Last updated: 2022-04-22
• FESCo issue: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
• Tracker bug: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
• Release notes tracker: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>

Detailed Description

Back in Fedora 33 the default hostname was changed from localhost to fedora for Fedora Linux instances that didn't get the hostname set in any other way (i.e. it's the fallback if it's not set anywhere else). This change came in in systemd and was never proposed as a change in Fedora itself.

The original enablement upstream was in https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/5175 and the BZ requesting the change in Fedora: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1392925

Unfortunately, this caused some pain (primarily in Fedora CoreOS user reported issues) because setting the hostname via reverse DNS lookups (via NetworkManager) stopped working along with breaking 3rd party tools that set the hostname. The NetworkManager problem was subsequently fixed, but it still remains that a lot of third party software will check to see if an instance's hostname is "unset" by checking the current hostname against the string "localhost". Additionally it even seems that this change will never be picked up by Fedora's primary downstream in CentOS/RHEL (see https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/systemd/c/13d1341b108a24d13f5922054307b5c2efc6836a?branch=rawhide).

The proposal here is to enable variants of Fedora Linux to configure their default/fallback hostname. This will allow variants that prefer localhost to configure it that way.

Scope

• Proposal owners:

• Other developers:

• Release engineering: #Releng issue number

• Policies and guidelines: N/A (not needed for this Change)

• Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)

• Alignment with Objectives:

Contingency Plan

• Contingency mechanism: (What to do? Who will do it?) N/A (not a System Wide Change)
• Contingency deadline: N/A (not a System Wide Change)
• Blocks release? N/A (not a System Wide Change), Yes/No

Documentation

N/A (not a System Wide Change)