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RESOLVER(5)		      File Formats Manual		   RESOLVER(5)

NAME
       resolver	-- resolver configuration file

SYNOPSIS
       /etc/resolv.conf

DESCRIPTION
       The  resolver  is  a set	of routines in the C library (resolve(3)) that
       provide access to the Internet Domain Name System.  The	resolver  con-
       figuration  file	contains information that is read by the resolver rou-
       tines the first time they are invoked by	a process.  The	 file  is  de-
       signed 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 constructed from	the domain name.

       The different configuration directives are:

       nameserver
		Internet address (in dot notation) of a	name server  that  the
		resolver  should  query.   Up  to  MAXNS (see <resolv.h>) name
		servers	may be listed, one per keyword.	 If there are multiple
		servers, the  resolver	library	 queries  them	in  the	 order
		listed.	  If no	nameserver 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).

       domain	Local  domain name.  Most queries for names within this	domain
		can use	short names relative  to  the  local  domain.	If  no
		domain entry is	present, the domain is determined from the lo-
		cal  host  name	 returned  by  gethostname; 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.

       search	Search list for	host-name lookup.  The search list is normally
		determined from	the local domain name; by default, it contains
		only the local domain name.  This may be  changed  by  listing
		the  desired  domain  search path following the	search 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 available	for  one  of  the  do-
		mains.

		The search list	is currently limited to	six domains with a to-
		tal of 256 characters.

       sortlist
		Allows	addresses  returned  by	gethostbyname to be sorted.  A
		sortlist is specified by IP address netmask pairs. The netmask
		is optional and	defaults to the	natural	netmask	 of  the  net.
		The  IP	 address  and  optional	network	pairs are separated by
		slashes. Up to 10 pairs	may be specified.  For example:

		      sortlist 130.155.160.0/255.255.240.0 130.155.0.0

       options	Allows certain internal	resolver  variables  to	 be  modified.
		The syntax is
		      options option ...
		where option is	one of the following:

		debug	  sets RES_DEBUG in _res.options.

		ndots:n	  sets	a  threshold for the number of dots which must
			  appear  in  a	 name  given   to   res_query()	  (see
			  resolver(3))	before	an initial absolute query will
			  be made.  The	default	for n is "1", meaning that  if
			  there	are any	dots in	a name,	the name will be tried
			  first	as an absolute name before any search list el-
			  ements are appended to it.

		timeout:n
			  sets the amount of time the resolver will wait for a
			  response  from  a remote name	server before retrying
			  the query via	a different name server.  Measured  in
			  seconds,    the    default   is   RES_TIMEOUT	  (see
			  <resolv.h>).

		attempts:n
			  sets the number of times the resolver	 will  send  a
			  query	 to  its name servers before giving up and re-
			  turning an error to the  calling  application.   The
			  default is RES_DFLRETRY (see <resolv.h>).

		rotate	  sets	RES_ROTATE in _res.options, which causes round
			  robin	selection  of  nameservers  from  among	 those
			  listed.   This has the effect	of spreading the query
			  load among all listed	servers,  rather  than	having
			  all  clients try the first listed server first every
			  time.

		no-check-names
			  sets RES_NOCHECKNAME in _res.options,	which disables
			  the modern BIND checking of incoming host names  and
			  mail names for invalid characters such as underscore
			  (_), non-ASCII, or control characters.

		inet6	  sets	RES_USE_INET6  in  _res.options.  This has the
			  effect of trying a AAAA query	before an A query  in-
			  side the gethostbyname function, and of mapping IPv4
			  responses  in	 IPv6  ``tunnelled  form''  if no AAAA
			  records are found but	an A record set	exists.

		no-tld-query
			  sets RES_NOTLDQUERY in  _res.options.	  This	option
			  causes res_nsearch() to not attempt to resolve a un-
			  qualified  name  as  if  it  were a top level	domain
			  (TLD).  This option can cause	problems if  the  site
			  has  "localhost"  as a TLD rather than having	local-
			  host on one or more elements	of  the	 search	 list.
			  This option has no effect if neither RES_DEFNAMES or
			  RES_DNSRCH is	set.

       The  domain  and	 search	keywords are mutually exclusive.  If more than
       one instance of these keywords is present, the last instance wins.

       The search keyword of a system's	resolv.conf file can be	overridden  on
       a  per-process  basis by	setting	the environment	variable "LOCALDOMAIN"
       to a space-separated list of search domains.

       The options keyword of a	system's resolv.conf file can be amended on  a
       per-process basis by setting the	environment variable "RES_OPTIONS to a
       space-separated	list  of"  resolver  options  as explained above under
       options.

       The keyword and value must appear on a single  line,  and  the  keyword
       (e.g., nameserver) must start the line.	The value follows the keyword,
       separated by white space.

FILES
       /etc/resolv.conf	<resolv.h>

SEE ALSO
       gethostbyname(3),  hostname(7), resolver(3), resolver(5).  "Name	Server
       Operations Guide	for BIND"

4th Berkeley Distribution      November	11, 1993		   RESOLVER(5)

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