This weeks tip describes a speedup technique for people that regularly
log into hosts not in our local domain MATH.UFL.EDU.  As you may
be aware, the internet name of a computer here at math is rather long,
but it is rarely necessary to use the long form locally.  So instead of

	% telnet slothrop.math.ufl.edu

one normally types simply:

	% telnet slothrop

If you were on a CIS or EE machine (and we do feel sorry for you if
that is true) you would have to type at least the following to get to
slothrop.math.ufl.edu:

	% telnet slothrop.math

If you find you are often typing in more of some host's internet name
(not just hosts here in the Department) then read on: this ``tip of 
the week'' is for you.

In your .login file, add the following line:

	setenv HOSTALIASES  $HOME/.hostaliases

This informs systems software that whenever a reference to an unknown
host is made, it should look in your home directory for a file named
".hostaliases" to resolve the reference.  This new file is nothing more
than pairs of the form "<alias> <real-long-name>", one pair to a line.

So if my file $HOME/.hostaliases has the following names in it:

mosquito mosquito.cis.ufl.edu
shades   shades.cis.ufl.edu
cmns     cmns-sun.think.com
bummer	 reef.cis.ufl.edu

Then when I type, for instance, "telnet cmns" the system will
interpret that as if I had typed instead "telnet cmns-sun.think.com".
You can make aliases for local machines as well, for instance, to
remove all occurences of the dash character:

wavygravy	wavy-gravy.math.ufl.edu
boyhowdy	boy-howdy.math.ufl.edu
bluetongue	blue-tongue.math.ufl.edu

Just create this file for customizations that will be convenient for
you. Of course you can name the file anything you want; ".hostaliases"
is mere convention.

This may or may not work on networks other than math.ufl.edu. Ask the
system administrator of the remote system to see if something of this sort
works there (and you may never have to type .math.ufl.edu again).


						Randy Fischer
Subject:	telnet hint, hostaliases