I just signed up for a VPS with Linode, and am going through the beginners' setup instructions, but am a bit lost with the editing for /etc/hosts. It suggests that I edit it as follows (where 12.34.56.78 is my server's ip):
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
12.34.56.78 something.yourdomain.com something
the file currently reads:
127.0.0.1 localhost
# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
...
First of all, does it matter which of the two localhost lines I use?
Secondly, I don't understand the purpose of the second line - Since the first refers to an IP of 127.0.0.1, I assume these are local addresses, so why would my server's address be of any consequence? Also, I don't presently want any subdomains - should I not include this line, or change it to something else? Does this affect the DNS connection between my domain name and the server?
I'm rather new at this, so I apologize in advance for any silly questions, and thank you for any help you can offer.