DNS client lookups, was [Fwd: Re: DNS configuration Tool]

[Tom Diehl]

On Sun, 4 Jan 2004, Ade Bradshaw wrote:

> Im not sure if Im being much clearer now ;-)   In a nutshell, if a DNS 
> *client* has two entries in /etc/resolv.conf will it always ask the 
> first server listed or will it choose one at random ??

>From man resolv.conf:

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).

HTH,

..............Tom