connecting using aliased hostname

[Raimo Niskanen]

It should work without any change to the distribution if you force
the nodename to be an aliased name; in your example start with
-sname n@REDACTED



ulf.wiger@REDACTED (Ulf Wiger AL/EAB) writes:

> We played around a little with the -kernel inetrc
> option, and tried to use a user-defined alias
> to connect to a node on another machine
> 
> E.g. if the official hostname is, say "gandalf",
> but we want to use the alias "saruman", we 
> specify in our inetrc file
> 
> {lookup, [file,native]}.
> {host, {10,10,10,10}, "gandalf", ["saruman"]}.
> 
> and then start an erlang node with 
> 
> erl -kernel inetrc '"./myinetrc"' -sname n -setcookie frodo
> 
> and try net:ping(n@REDACTED), it doesn't work.
> It seems to go wrong in recv_challenge, since 
> the other node calls himself 'n@REDACTED'.
> 
> The patch to dist_util.erl below makes us lookup
> the hostent record and proceed if the hostname
> given by the other node is either the official
> name (most likely) or a known alias.
> 
> I admit that it is usually not terribly useful,
> and perhaps sometimes quite confusing to allow
> aliased hostnames, but on occasion, I think it 
> can be quite nice to have.
> 
> Say, for example that we have a node that connects
> to a system under test ("sut"). We can consistently 
> use the nodename thenode@REDACTED in our test program.
> Wonderfully convenient!
> 
> (Ok, crummy example. Mostly, I was curious to see if
> it could be made to work, after having satisfied my 
> initial curiosity in establishing that it didn't in
> fact work.)
> 
> /Uffe
> BTW, the patch isn't quite generic. It assumes 'inet'.
> 
> 
> *** $OTP_ROOT/lib/kernel-2.10.10/src/dist_util.erl    Tue Aug 30
> 05:05:28 2005
> --- dist_util.erl       Thu Dec  1 15:29:31 2005
> ***************
> *** 33,38 ****
> --- 33,40 ----
>   
>   -include("dist_util.hrl").
>   -include("dist.hrl").
> + -include("inet.hrl").
> + 
>   
>   -define(to_port(FSend, Socket, Data),
>         case FSend(Socket, Data) of
> ***************
> *** 324,332 ****
>       send_name(HSData),
>       recv_status(HSData),
>       {PreOtherFlags, NodeA, VersionA, ChallengeA} =
> recv_challenge(HSData),
> !     if Node =/= NodeA -> ?shutdown(no_node);
> !        Version =/= VersionA -> ?shutdown(no_node);
> !        true -> true
>       end,
>       {ThisFlags, OtherFlags} = adjust_flags(PreThisFlags,
>                                            PreOtherFlags),
> --- 326,340 ----
>       send_name(HSData),
>       recv_status(HSData),
>       {PreOtherFlags, NodeA, VersionA, ChallengeA} =
> recv_challenge(HSData),
> !     GoodNode =
> !       if Node =/= NodeA ->
> !               is_alias(NodeA);
> !          true -> true
> !       end,
> !     GoodVsn = (Version == VersionA),
> !     if (GoodNode and GoodVsn) -> true;
> !        true ->
> !           ?shutdown(no_node)
>       end,
>       {ThisFlags, OtherFlags} = adjust_flags(PreThisFlags,
>                                            PreOtherFlags),
> ***************
> *** 341,346 ****
> --- 349,375 ----
>       reset_timer(NewHSData#hs_data.timer),
>       recv_challenge_ack(NewHSData, MyChallenge, MyCookie),
>       connection(NewHSData).
> + 
> + is_alias(Node) ->
> +     case split_node(atom_to_list(Node), $@, []) of
> +       [Name|Tail] ->
> +           Host = lists:append(Tail),
> +           case inet:gethostbyname(Host, inet) of
> +               {ok, #hostent{h_name = OfficialName,
> +                             h_aliases = Aliases}} ->
> +                       lists:member(Host, [OfficialName|Aliases]);
> +               _ ->
> +                   false
> +           end;
> +       _ ->
> +           false
> +     end.
> + 
> + 
> + split_node([Chr|T], Chr, Ack) -> [lists:reverse(Ack)|split_node(T,
> Chr, [])];
> + split_node([H|T], Chr, Ack)   -> split_node(T, Chr, [H|Ack]);
> + split_node([], _, Ack)        -> [lists:reverse(Ack)].
> + 
>   
>   %% --------------------------------------------------------------
>   %% The connection has been established.

-- 

/ Raimo Niskanen, Erlang/OTP, Ericsson AB