"sendmail uses 'host' instead of 'getent hosts' to determine local ip resolution"

[Deeps]

Binary package hint: sendmail

Description: Ubuntu 8.04.2
Release: 8.04
Package: sendmail 8.14.2-2build1

at boot time, network interfaces are brought up before nameservers.
when the primary network interface is brought up, sendmail comes up with it
the startup script attempts to perform a 'host' lookup on the ip address of the interface
if the only nameservers defined in /etc/resolv.conf are on the local host, the host lookup will sometimes timeout (bind9-host behaves this way), even if the ip address it's looking up exists in /etc/hosts

the script also appears to loop against host until it gets a response, which never comes as the rest of the system will not carry on booting until the interfaces have finished their up scripts, leaving the system unusable.

instead of using 'host' to resolve local ip addresses, the use of 'getent hosts' appears to be preferred.

for more information, original bug filed against bind9-host: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bind9/+bug/318828