FQDNs are generally required. But putting short name in /etc/hosts above FQDN you effectively change the hostname to a short one. If you want to set a short name you need to update SSSD and Kerberos configuration too. I do not think we can do anything about this ticket. It is documented that FQDNs are required (to reduce the about of manual configuration you need to deal with to explain to SSSD and kerberos what you meant with a short name).

Understand your point but what tripped the person editing the file up is that the default 6.4 localhost configuration in /etc/hosts has the short hostname preceeding the FQDN (see below).

127.0.0.1   localhost localhost.localdomain localhost4 localhost4.localdomain4
::1         localhost localhost.localdomain localhost6 localhost6.localdomain6

It was assumed that this was the correct way to arrange the entries (or at least supported) especially as the FQDN was still entered on the line.

I believe a similar issue was resolved here
https://fedorahosted.org/freeipa/ticket/1923

That was a pre-install check too. There isn't much we can do post-install.

dpal had idea how to approach that issue: during install, record the name that was used. In the ipa command check if this name does not match the name that is returned by the system issue a warning that commands might not work properly since the hosts file was mangled after install.

This issue is still not a priority, however. I will place to to appropriate milestone. We, however, welcome someone to grab the ticket and send a patch to get it in faster.

Thank you taking time to submit this request for FreeIPA. Unfortunately this bug was not given priority and the team lacks the capacity to work on it at this time.

Given that we are unable to fulfil this request I am closing the issue as wontfix. To request re-consideration of this decision please reopen this issue and provide additional technical details about its importance to you.