Stupid question but I'm having a hard time finding a simple, straightforward answer to this question.

If my /etc/hosts file contained my server's IP address, DNS name ("example.com"), and hostname ("diamond"), e.g.

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.1.1 debian
192.168.1.1 example.com diamond

would my FQDN be "diamond.example.com"?

Thanks!

If you want your FQDN to be diamond.example.com, then your hosts file entry would be:
192.168.1.1 diamond.example.com diamond

Which means both diamond.example.com AND it's alias diamond resolves to 192.168.1.1

http://www.faqs.org/docs/securing/chap9sec95.html
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutoria ... hostnames/

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Thank you but that doesn't quite answer my question. I don't want my FQDN to be "diamond.example.com". I just want to know how to determine what it actually is at the present time and I thought providing my hosts file would provide the necessary information. Is my FQDN for the given hosts file just "example.com"?

Thanks again.

The FQDN is whatever you define it as. Whatever is presently in your hosts file would be that FQDN. (Most likely something else than example.com)

hostname -f

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Thanks everyone for your answers!