nieusma@eclipse.colorado.edu (Jeff Nieusma) (12/03/90)
Archive-name: internet/named/sun-resolver/1990-11-29 Archive: alumni.Colorado.EDU:/pub/libc.tar.Z [128.138.240.32] Original-posting-by: Jeff Nieusma <nieusma@eclipse.colorado.edu> Original-subject: FYI: Sun needs to learn what a resolver is... Reposted-by: emv@ox.com (Edward Vielmetti) I've noticed that the resolver "option" that sun includes with it's OS release is quite brain dead. For example, have you ever tried to use a machine with the resolver library that wasn't connected to the network? Or better yet, when the nameserver was down? You might have noticed some very nasty results. I know I did. I have rebuilt the resolver so it will actually back off to the /etc/hosts file if no nameserver is available. Like so many /etc/hosts files, ours has the "short" host name first and the fully qualified domain names (FQDN) second. Since my machines are set up to use nameservice, I have FQDNs in /etc/exports and /etc/bootparams. These files are pretty important and I'd like them (and the daemons that go with them) to continue to function even if the nameserver is not available. So, not only does my new resolver ask the host table after timing out on the nameservers, but it also returns the same thing the nameserver would have returned: a fully qualified domain name. I think this is a pretty important feature. It is available for anonymous ftp from alumni.Colorado.EDU ( 128.138.240.32 ) in pub/libc.tar.Z This project has its inspiration in the fact that Sun still has not learned how to use the resolver and has therefore firmly decided that YP/NIS and the /etc/hosts file are the only ways to resolve names and addresses. To those at Sun with this attitude, and I know it's not everyone, I dedicate this package! +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Jeff Nieusma Logical: nieusma@boulder.colorado.edu | | System Administrator/Programmer Audible: (303) 492-0677 | | Computer Science Department Physical: Campus Box 430 | | University of Colorado Boulder, CO 80309-0430 | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Work exists only to make play more fun, so if play is fun enough, why work? | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+