[PATCH] new applet gethostbyname

[ralda at gmx.de]

Hi Paul!

> IMHO we shouldn't be inventing new applets for busybox.
> ...
> Creating applets with no precedent in other UNIX/POSIX
> systems is (again IMHO) not a good idea for busybox.

In principle you are right, but Busybox is used on many small systems
where several higher functions are controlled by shell scripts. As
those scripts need access to several kind of information it is a good
idea to have small applets build into Busybox to retrieve this
information and present it in a compatible and easy to use manor. As
this the getent command seams to be a good idea to be included in
Busybox. The command gives access to several kind of information which
is mostly based on glibc nsswitch functionality but this function is
emulated within Busybox in severals ways (passwd, shadow, group,
gshadow etc.). Implementing this in Busybox in a way that uses libbb
functionality is perfect for information retrieval in shell
scripts without need to look for the method on how this information is
made available by the system. This could help to avoid to deal with
system specific purposes in shell scripts as they are solved on a
central (and fast/compact) place in Busybox. I would vote for a
carefully designed implementation of a getent Busybox applet.

--
Harald