resolv.conf question

[Barry Margolin]

In article <20000615091220.D432 at innominate.de>,
Ralf Hildebrandt  <Ralf.Hildebrandt at innominate.de> wrote:
>>     Ralf> My question: Is there any way to automatically reorder the
>>     Ralf> server in such a way, that query time is optimal?
>> 
>> No. And even if there were, few applications would be able to exploit
>> it. Most applications make 1 DNS request - maybe repeated to 2 or 3
>> name servers - and then don't do another DNS lookup after they've got
>> the answer.
>
>? 
>I thought the programs would use resolver routines, and the resolver would
>take care of the resolution itself.
>
>So the resolver would have to keep track of the reachability (like xntpd)

The resolver is a subroutine library that runs in the client process.  When
the process exits, no state (e.g. the availability of the nameservers) is
saved anywhere.  So the next time you run a command, it starts from
scratch.

A resolver feature that remembers server availability would be useful for
long-running processes like sendmail or netscape, but it wouldn't help
one-shot commands like telnet or ping.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar at genuity.net
Genuity, Burlington, MA
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