Error output: xymonnet: Cannot resolve IP for host lapple.local
with a hosts.cfg entry of
0.0.0.0 lapple.local # NAME:lapple CLIENT:lapple.pri dialup noflap=location ssh ntp rpc=mountd,nlockmgr,nfs,rpcbind,rquotad,status,ypbind NOCOLUMNS:files multihomed NOPROPPURPLE:+location NOPROPYELLOW:+location
"lapple" - the laptop - may report as "lapple.pri" at home, but either at home or connected in via VPN*, may be known as "lapple.local". The .local domain is multicast DNS (aka Bonjour), which is dynamic - the name itself is advertised by the host in question, and only resolves when the host is on the local network (even the VPN case took some interesting trickery, since the VPN is layer 3, and a VPN client doesn't have its own MAC address).
In other words, in the case of 0.0.0.0 together with dialup, should it really be an error if the name can't be looked up? There's cases it could happen without anything untoward being involved...and I don't see any better way to configure an intermittent mobile client with potentially varying IP address, than how I did it.