nslookup issues on hp-ux

[Kevin Darcy]

Praveen Kumar Amritaluru wrote:

> >
> > At 06:33 22.02.2001 -0800, you wrote:
> >
> >
> > >Okay, now I'm really confused. I thought nslookup called resolver
> > >routines, which are supposed to check /etc/nsswitch.conf. The libbind.a
> > >looks like it compiles its own versions of the resolver routines, then
> > >gets linked into nslookup. So it is not using the native resolver routines
> > >from HP-UX, which, according to the man pages, go to nsswitch.conf to see
> > >where to resolve from. Also, both texts I consulted ("DNS and BIND, 3rd
> > >Ed." and "(The Concise Guide to) DNS and BIND") describe this resolver
> > >behavior, that nslookup uses the resolver to find which service to use
> > >(files, DNS or NIS). I'm very confused at this point and don't know what
> > >to believe...
>
>         Still  nslookup  that  comes up with HP's  distribution  will be
>         following /etc/nsswitch.conf file. If you want the latest version
>         of nslookup, then try downloading BIND 8.1.2 on HP-UX available
>         at http://www.software.hp.com.
>
>         But  the  public   domain   nslookup   code  does  not  use  the
>         /etc/nsswitch.conf file and more over the nslookup is built from
>         static library  libbind.a which does not read the  nsswitch.conf
>         file.  nslookup  that you were using  earlier  should be working
>         well with new version of BIND.
>
>         Public domain  nslookup code should be doing this  modification,
>         as IP add.  -  hostname  information  is stored not just in DNS,
>         but also in FILES & NIS.

I disagree vehemently. nslookup is a *DNS-specific* lookup tool. It comes with the
BIND distribution; in fact, its code was ripped out of an early BIND codebase and
made standalone. The "ns" in "nslookup" is echoed from "DNS". Nobody ever intended
it to be the all-singing, all-dancing, generic lookup tool for all naming sources
in the known universe, and in fact it would be horrible for that, since it only
understands a DNS or DNS-like naming hierarchy. It would be totally hopeless, for
instance, trying to navigate X.500, Active Directory or even NetInfo.

Besides, the more useful you make nslookup, the longer it lives. It should have
already been buried by now, because of all of its quirks and flaws.


- Kevin