Adding or editing an entry in /etc/hosts

[Derek Broughton]

Brian Lunergan wrote:

> Based on Rebel Lion's suggestion my hosts file no contains:
> 
> 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
> 127.0.1.1 ubuntu

OK, that explains _that_ odd entry in my hosts file.  I just
removed "127.0.1.1 othello" (my host name) from hosts a few days ago,
because it was interfering with "hostname -d" (which I use for network
identification) when I was not actually connected to a network. I didn't
recognize it, but assumed I must have added it.  Now I suspect my fresh
install of edgy did it.  Maybe it did have a use... :-)  

Can someone explain what 127.0.1.1 is supposed to be?  Maybe it's just
supposed to be "anything". I can't believe I've been using Linux for a
decade and only just discovered that all 127.x.x.x addresses seem to map to
the local machine.
-- 
derek