brett@wjvax.UUCP (Brett Galloway) (10/16/86)
We have an ethernet LAN (4.2 TCP/IP) on which exist a number of transitory computers. These computers can all be identified with a unique hostname and hostid/internet address, but they cannot know who else exists on the LAN besides themselves. Right now, whenever we wish to add another host, we have to update N copies of /etc/hosts. What I want is a client/server daemon (analogous to routed(8)) which allows automatic generation of the local host list in /etc/hosts. It would, upon startup, broadcast its own hostname and address, and broadcast a request for the hostnames and addresses of everyone else on the net. In addition, it would periodically broadcast its own hostname and address, just for good measure. I am posting this to net.wanted.sources in case this beast already exists. I am posting this to net.unix-wizards in case my requst is way off base (i.e. there already exists a way to do this), or to provide any tips/warnings on how (or whether to try) to implement such a daemon. Thanks in advance. -- ------------- Brett Galloway {pesnta,twg,ios,qubix,turtlevax,tymix,vecpyr,certes,isi}!wjvax!brett