The name for the default host does not have to be resolvable in DNS.

git-svn-id: https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/tomcat/trunk@1081698 13f79535-47bb-0310-9956-ffa450edef68

diff --git a/webapps/docs/config/host.xml b/webapps/docs/config/host.xml
index cb60d56..53660f5 100644 (file)
--- a/webapps/docs/config/host.xml
+++ b/webapps/docs/config/host.xml
@@ -39,11 +39,11 @@
 
   <p>The <strong>Host</strong> element represents a <em>virtual host</em>,
   which is an association of a network name for a server (such as
-  "www.mycompany.com" with the particular server on which Catalina is
-  running.  In order to be effective, this name must be registered in the
-  <em>Domain Name Service</em> (DNS) server that manages the Internet
-  domain you belong to - contact your Network Administrator for more
-  information.</p>
+  "www.mycompany.com" with the particular server on which Tomcat is running.
+  For clients to be able to connect to a Tomcat server using its network name,
+  this name must be registered in the <em>Domain Name Service</em> (DNS) server
+  that manages the Internet domain you belong to - contact your Network
+  Administrator for more information.</p>
 
   <p>In many cases, System Administrators wish to associate more than
   one network name (such as <code>www.mycompany.com</code> and
@@ -58,6 +58,15 @@
   associated with each Engine MUST have a name matching the
   <code>defaultHost</code> attribute of that Engine.</p>
 
+  <p>Clients normally use host names to identify the server they wish to connect
+  to. This host name is also included in the HTTP request headers. Tomcat
+  extracts the host name from the HTTP headers and looks for a
+  <strong>Host</strong> with a matching name. If no match is found, the request
+  is routed to the default host. The name of the default host does not have to
+  match a DNS name (although it can) since any request where the DNS name does
+  not match the name of a <strong>Host</strong> element will be routed to the
+  default host.</p>
+
     <blockquote><em>
     <p>The description below uses the variable name $CATALINA_BASE to refer the
     base directory against which most relative paths are resolved. If you have
@@ -169,9 +178,9 @@
       </attribute>
 
       <attribute name="name" required="true">
-        <p>Network name of this virtual host, as registered in your
+        <p>Usually the network name of this virtual host, as registered in your
         <em>Domain Name Service</em> server. Regardless of the case used to
-        specify the hostname, Tomcat will convert it to lower case internally.
+        specify the host name, Tomcat will convert it to lower case internally.
         One of the Hosts nested within an <a href="engine.html">Engine</a> MUST
         have a name that matches the <code>defaultHost</code> setting for that
         Engine.  See <a href="#Host Name Aliases">Host Name Aliases</a> for