Minimal requirements for hosts file at boot time

[nobody at kodak.com]

I'm in the process of taking over responsibility of a YP domain that
consists of 4 servers (3/280's and 4/280) and about 70 clients.  Most of
the clients are diskless, although there are a few standalones that use YP
services and mount various directories from the servers.  One of the
servers is is the YP master and the others are slave servers.

In the process of exploring and trying to clean up various stuff, I've
noticed that many systems have large hosts files (/etc/hosts).  Some of
these are somewhat outdated.  It is my understanding that a diskless
client only needs to know about its server in its own hosts file.  This is
for mounting / and /usr.  The remaining mounts are not made until after
ypbind starts up.  Therefore, YP services take care of host name and host
address resolution.  Is this understanding correct?  I did this on my own
diskless workstation and it booted fine having only the server that
supplies its root directory and swap area in the hosts file.

I'd assume that a server would also not need to know about its clients in
order for it (the server) to boot correctly.  I'd assume it only needs to
know about itself in its own hosts file, if it indeed needs to know
anything at all.  Once again, after YP starts up (ypbind) it can mount
file systems from the other servers.  (Actually the YP master has the full
blown hosts file as it is needed to make the YP maps.) Even though
suninstall puts the name and address of a server's clients in the server's
hosts file, I gather that they are not really needed unless that server is
the YP master.

If there is something wrong with my assumptions and understanding of this,
I'd appreciate having someone point out my errors.  My understanding comes
from reading chapters 5 and 12 of the System and Network Administration
Manual.  If this is explained elsewhere, I'd like to know about it.

Thanks,
Charlie Dennett          | UUCP: ...!rutgers!rochester!kodak!cygnus!dennett
Information Services     | Internet:  dennett at Kodak.COM
Eastman Kodak Company    | Phone: (716) 726-4480
Rochester, NY 14653-5219 | Minicomputer Tech. Support Group - HP3000/VAX/SUN