RESOLVER(5) BSD Programmer's Manual RESOLVER(5) NNAAMMEE rreessoollvveerr - resolver configuration file SSYYNNOOPPSSIISS rreessoollvv..ccoonnff DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN The resolver(3) is a set of routines in the C library which provide ac- cess to the Internet Domain Name System. The resolver configuration file contains information that is read by the resolver routines the first time they are invoked by a process. The file is designed to be human readable and contains a list of keywords with values that provide various types of resolver information. On a normally configured system this file should not be necessary. The only name server to be queried will be on the local machine, the domain name is determined from the host name, and the domain search path is con- structed from the domain name. The different configuration options are: nnaammeesseerrvveerr Internet address (in dot notation) of a name server that the resolver should query. Up to MAXNS (currently 3) name servers may be listed, one per keyword. If there are multi- ple servers, the resolver library queries them in the order listed. If no nnaammeesseerrvveerr entries are present, the default is to use the name server on the local machine. (The algorithm used is to try a name server, and if the query times out, try the next, until out of name servers, then repeat trying all the name servers until a maximum number of retries are made). ddoommaaiinn Local domain name. Most queries for names within this domain can use short names relative to the local domain. If no ddoommaaiinn entry is present, the domain is determined from the local host name returned by gethostname(2); the domain part is taken to be everything after the first `.'. Finally, if the host name does not contain a domain part, the root domain is assumed. sseeaarrcchh Search list for host-name lookup. The search list is normal- ly determined from the local domain name; by default, it be- gins with the local domain name, then successive parent do- mains that have at least two components in their names. This may be changed by listing the desired domain search path fol- lowing the sseeaarrcchh keyword with spaces or tabs separating the names. Most resolver queries will be attempted using each component of the search path in turn until a match is found. Note that this process may be slow and will generate a lot of network traffic if the servers for the listed domains are not local, and that queries will time out if no server is avail- able for one of the domains. The search list is currently limited to six domains with a total of 256 characters. The ddoommaaiinn and sseeaarrcchh keywords are mutually exclusive. If more than one instance of these keywords is present, the last instance will override. The keyword and value must appear on a single line, and the keyword (e.g. nnaammeesseerrvveerr) must start the line. The value follows the keyword, separat- ed by white space. FFIILLEESS /etc/resolv.conf The file rreessoollvv..ccoonnff resides in _/_e_t_c. SSEEEE AALLSSOO gethostbyname(3), resolver(3), hostname(7), named(8) _N_a_m_e _S_e_r_v_e_r _O_p_e_r_a_t_i_o_n_s _G_u_i_d_e _f_o_r _B_I_N_D. HHIISSTTOORRYY The rreessoollvv..ccoonnff file format appeared in 4.3BSD. 4th Berkeley Distribution June 5, 1993 2