Q:

How to configure the name returned from ping?

Currently my Debian-based machine returns whatever name was used to ping it, as it's name when answering to ping:
 - saturn:~$ ifconfig | grep "inet addr"
          inet addr:192.168.0.103  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
 - saturn:~$ ping -c 1 192.168.0.103 | grep from
64 bytes from 192.168.0.103: icmp_req=1 ttl=64 time=0.094 ms
 - saturn:~$ ping -c 1 localhost | grep from
64 bytes from localhost (127.0.0.1): icmp_req=1 ttl=64 time=0.081 ms
 - saturn:~$ ping -c 1 saturn | grep from
64 bytes from saturn (127.0.1.1): icmp_req=1 ttl=64 time=0.079 ms
 - saturn:~$

I would like to to always return "saturn". There is no DNS, this is on a local LAN with DHCP. I have read a question regarding DNS but here there is no PTR record to configure. How can I have all pings return the name "saturn"?
Thanks.

A:

Do you have a valid reason to want this?
This would be non-standard behaviour.
Ping (and other tools) looks up what the IP resolves to according to /etc/nsswitch.conf.
That's usually set to "files dns" for "hosts", meaning it will first look at /etc/hosts and then use DNS if that doesn't contain any useful info.

