Socket - gaierror

[half.italian at gmail.com]

On Aug 27, 12:47 pm, half.ital... at gmail.com wrote:
> On Aug 27, 12:32 pm, Larry Bates <larry.ba... at websafe.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > half.ital... at gmail.com wrote:
> > > Hi all,
>
> > > I'm having trouble with the socket module resolving a hostname.  It
> > > seems like this is a system level problem, but I'm not even sure where
> > > to start.  I can ping the smtp server by name and IP, but when
> > > smtp.SMTP("theHost") tries to get the hostname, it keeps giving me the
> > > following error:
>
> > >   File "bin/program.py", line 123, in notify
> > >     smtp = smtplib.SMTP("theHost")
>
> > >   File "/usr/lib/python2.4/smtplib.py", line 255, in __init__
> > >     addr = socket.gethostbyname(socket.gethostname())
>
> > > gaierror: (-2, 'Name or service not known')
>
> > > I tried changing to a different smtp server, using an ip instead of a
> > > host name.  I could ping both boxes by name oor IP.
>
> > > any ideas?
>
> > > ~Sean
>
> > The specific error shown is a DNS resolution problem.  Based on the
> > URL "theHost" smtplib can't resolve to an IP address (which is what
> > socket.gethostbyname does).  You don't say what happened when you changed to ip,
> > but I suspect it is a different error or some other problem.  Maybe a firewall
> > issue (port 25 not open?), but I'm just guessing.
>
> > -Larry
>
> Changing it to IP gives me the same exact error...
>
>   File "bin/prgram.py", line 123, in notify
>     smtp = smtplib.SMTP("XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX")
>
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.4/smtplib.py", line 255, in __init__
>     addr = socket.gethostbyname(socket.gethostname())
>
> gaierror: (-2, 'Name or service not known')
>
> Looks like the smtp port is closed on the client machine...doh Should
> have gotten to that!
>
> Thank you.
>
> ~Sean

I take it back, that wasn't the solution.  I got it to work by
haacking smtplib with a static host instead of the
socket.gethostbyname(socket.gethostname()) call...but if I leave that
in there I might get shot one day.  What could cause the shell to be
able to resolve the addresses properly, but not python?
nnsswitch.conf ?

I don't know enough about what's going on in the background.  Any
other ideas? Or should I try this on a unix board?

~Sean