I have "sh: host: command not found" in my logfiles!

If you get a
sh: host: command not found
or similar in your servers logfile you have a program that tries to execute the "host" command but either cannot find it or is not allowed to execute it.

This typically comes from a tatistics software or similar because the host-command is used to get a hostname for an ip address (such as google.com etc).

to remove this entry, you have to 1st find if you have the host command installed on your server. also, see if you are using bind instead, then you need a different host program, please refer to your distribution what is needed. This becomes clear once you install "host" and get a different error.

If you have host installed, and the error still comes up, this means that the script on your server (php?) is not allowed to execute shell commands such as host. Please note that even if the command is executed from one of your -servers, the error will not show up in the corresponding logfile, but in the common default errorlog of apache.

So you will have to find out from which virtualhost this comes. you can search for "host" in the scripts or if the servers are not critical, disable each virtualhost for some time to see which one is causing the trouble. Alternatively you can also allow the script to execute shell commands, which is not recommendable for security reasons. Remember its most probably a statsistics software trying to access the command.

Last Update: 2008-01-10 09:13:35

 FAQ > Server Software  > Apache Webserver

Recent Aditions

- I have "sh: host: command not found" in my logfiles! (2008-01-10 09:13:35)
- My driverless USB device is not recognized! (2007-09-19 10:20:12)
- How to zip all logfiles recursive (2007-09-14 10:19:50)
- Please add currency X to the charts! (2006-11-17 15:28:04)
- How do I re-emerge my packages after changing my useflags in mage.conf? (2006-10-22 11:35:24)
- Ghost Recon Advanced warfighter (GRAW), SECUROM & Kaspersky Anti-Virus (2006-09-17 09:35:27)
- I get a message "This layout sucks. Adapt squirrelmail.css!!!" below my Message list! (2006-06-23 13:31:11)
- How can I remove my old kernel sources? (2006-06-09 11:35:22)
- How can I find out how much space a directory is using? (2006-06-09 10:57:22)
- How can I start VNCServer on Fedora to start automatically for a certain user as a daemon? (2006-05-31 09:40:25)

Most wanted FAQ

- ATI Catlayst driver: CLI.exe - does not start (8982)
- I upgraded to FC4 and now I get a "Cannot open/read repomd.xml file for repository: livna-stable" (6752)
- How to setup rotating logs with "Rotatelogs" under Windows (5416)
- Shut Down and Automatic Reboot Problems (3738)
- How can I start VNCServer on Fedora to start automatically for a certain user as a daemon? (3368)
- How to unzip many files to their respective directories under Linux? (3152)
- How to convert a complete Database to Unicode (UTF-8), using Windows. (3063)
- How can I terminate a program? (2671)
- How to make a tree-style menu structure (2656)
- How can I find out what processes are running in the background? (2430)