Where does FreeBSD store hostname once set?

Gertjan

@mrpete said in Where does FreeBSD store hostname once set?:

anywhere

Try this :

I presume your LAN interface has the default IP 192.168.1.1

Ok go for :

host 192.168.1.1

if you've set a host override for the other LAN or WAN interface IPs, you'll get that host.domain back.

Btw : a firewall / router has multiple interfaces, so, what is the host name ?
Depends.
What interface ?

Btw :

uname -i

returns what you've set in System > General Setup > Hostname ( ? )

rcoleman-netgate

@mrpete said in Where does FreeBSD store hostname once set?:

it's not necessarily stored anywhere

It is stored... it is in /conf/config.xml

MrPete

Wow!
@Gertjan, nope.

uname -i returns "pfSense" which I have not configured anywhere. (My general settings host is "jasmine" ;) )
rDNS for each interface of course could be anything... or several things. That's why I wasn't asking about that.

@rcoleman-netgate /conf/config.xml is where pfSense keeps the configuration info, yes.

I am asking about FreeBSD because various systems, apps, tools, security monitors etc want to know about system names.

Apparently the answer, for a pfSense setup, is:

We don't use the typical FreeBSD config files
But hostname will give the needed information

I'm good with that!

jimp

FYI- uname -i is the name of the kernel config file, not your hostname.

The hostname from config.xml gets set via hostname so it's set in the kernel, plus added to /etc/hosts, the unbound config, dnsmasq config, etc.

See also:
https://github.com/pfsense/pfsense/blob/master/src/etc/inc/system.inc#L880

Gertjan

@mrpete

Indeed, I stand corrected.
Stupid me, as my pfSense was called pfSense when I got it, and I found that, back then, a good device name.
I'm not sure why I was checking out all the "uname" options, abd stopped at the -i option. Should have fact check that one first.
Worse : I forgot about 'hostname', as that command name gives right away the answer to the question.

Btw :

hostname | awk -F"." '{print $1}'

MrPete

@jimp Thanks, Jim!
The Code always FTW :)

I do have a question, now that I see this picture:

Although the hostname IS listed as local-data in /var/unbound/host_entries.conf ... hostname is NOT used as the rDNS (local-data-ptr in the same file)!

Instead, whatever entry happens to be first in the list of host overrides is used.

Is that expected? Seems kinda random and unintuitive to me.

MrPete

@gertjan said in Where does FreeBSD store hostname once set?:

hostname | awk -F"." '{print $1}'

Simpler: hostname -s (and hostname -d gives the domain part :-D)

jimp

@mrpete said in Where does FreeBSD store hostname once set?:

@jimp Thanks, Jim!
The Code always FTW :)

I do have a question, now that I see this picture:

Although the hostname IS listed as local-data in /var/unbound/host_entries.conf ... hostname is NOT used as the rDNS (local-data-ptr in the same file)!

Instead, whatever entry happens to be first in the list of host overrides is used.

Is that expected? Seems kinda random and unintuitive to me.

I don't see what you mean there on my systems here. I have an unrelated host override defined and yet the firewall's own hostname is there in forward/reverse:

local-data-ptr: "10.34.0.1 pfSense.home.arpa"
local-data: "pfSense.home.arpa. A 10.34.0.1"

You're probably misreading the file, or have something else in your config that's overriding the expected behavior.

MrPete

@jimp I think this is a real bug.

First, some context, most of which probably doesn't matter at all ;)

My actual pfSense hostname is in the middle of the alphabet (jasmine.ds.org)
I have a number of subnets, but primary is 192.168.1.0/24 with pfSense at .1.1 (and .1.2 , .1.3 for CARP)
I do have a host override for the hostname to .1.1 (changing or removing this has no impact)
(This may be crucial) I have a number of host overrides that all point to .1.1 for HAproxy use

I just proved my conjecture

Clearly rDNS for a given IP can and must only point to one name
I would hope that hostname takes priority over all others in that regard
Instead, what I suggested above is true: the local rDNS name given to the local hostname IP, will be: whatever name is alphabetically first in the host override list.

You can test this yourself:

Add an override to the top of the list, pointing to your LAN pfSense IP (in my case: aa-test.ds.org -> 192.168.1.1)
The local rDNS became: local-data-ptr: "192.168.1.1 aa-test.ds.org"
Changing other things has no impact

I guess we could say that use of HAproxy overrides the expected behavior?

Are you thinking that as long as NO other override points to .1.1, pfSense will configure a local-data-ptr entry for the hostname?

I also note: names (hostname or otherwise) are also not auto-assigned to any other local subnet gateway IP's (from DHCP, interface IP, or otherwise.)

At this point, my expectations are low: I'm fine with no names for most of those... I would just hope that whatever local IP is/are assigned to hostname, would take precedence for the reverse, period (whether or not other overrides are present.) It would avoid quite a bit of name confusion ;)

jimp

You can open a Redmine for that, will get addressed eventually. Seems like it will be quite a bit trickier to solve than it appears on the surface, though.