[exim] Exim + Debian Etch Ignores Hosts entries?

Folks - sorry if this is a repeat - I couldn't find it elsewhere (in
the archives) - but I admit I didn't search too far back manually (a
search for ignore hosts or hosts entries produced nothing relevant).

On Debian Etch (and a 1/2).

exim4 - 4.63-17.

The system name in /etc/mailname only matches the first entry on any
line of the /etc/hosts file.

I'm not sure how the system call is done here - or if exim is scanning
the hosts file itself, but mailname ONLY matches against the first
entry of each line.

For instance:

127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.localdomain
127.0.1.1 myhost myhost.mydomain

If I use /etc/mailname of 'localhost.localdomain' or 'myhost.mydomain'
then mail will get forwarded (via my smarthost) to : USERNAME@???
or USERNAME@???.

This behavior is ignoring my /etc/aliases entries:

root: netops@???


However, if I use localhost OR myhost - then mail is sent/forwarded to netops@???
as it should be.

Is this a Debian issue? A 4.63 issue? A known issue?

Erik