freedesktop nss-myhostname is a plugin for the GNU Name Service Switch (NSS) functionality of the GNU C Library (glibc) providing host name resolution for the locally configured system hostname as returned by gethostname(2). Various software relies on an always resolvable local host name. When using dynamic hostnames this is usually achieved by patching /etc/hosts at the same time as changing the host name. This however is not ideal since it requires a writable /etc file system and is fragile because the file might be edited by the administrator at the same time. nss-myhostname simply returns all locally configure public IP addresses, or -- if none are configured -- the IPv4 address 127.0.0.2 (wich is on the local loopback) and the IPv6 address ::1 (which is the local host) for whatever system hostname is configured locally. Patching /etc/hosts is thus no longer necessary.