Open System Services Shell and Utilities Reference Manual (G06.29+, H06.08+, J06.03+)

resolv.conf(4) OSS Shell and Utilities Reference Manual
NAME
resolv.conf - Describes BIND 4 Domain Name System resolver configuration file
DESCRIPTION
The configuration file /etc/resolv.conf provides an explicit default domain name for the Domain
Name System (DNS) to use, and identifies name servers on other processors. Each entry in the
file is a directive that consists of a keyword followed by one or more values:
keyword value
The /etc/resolv.conf file can contain the following directives:
nameserver address
The Internet address of a name server, in standard dot notation. Multiple name
server addresses may be listed. The resolver queries the name servers in the
order they are listed in the file, stopping when it receives a response, or moving
to the next in the list if the query times out. If the resolver reaches the end of the
name server list without receiving a response, it will start from the beginning of
the list and query each name server again, until a maximum number of retries is
reached. If /etc/resolv.conf contains no nameserver directives, the resolver uses
the loopback address. Therefore, a name server must be running on the proces-
sor on which the file resides.
domain name The default domain to append to names that do not contain a domain, and the
default domain name to be used in searches. No trailing spaces are allowed after
the value in name.
If /etc/resolv.conf does not contain a domain directive, then the resolver uses the
the hostname for the processor, but removes the first part of the name. For exam-
ple, if the host name is set to "yojimbo.dev1.anyfirm.com," the resolver
uses the name "dev1.anyfirm.com."
search name name ...
The explicit search order that you want the resolver to use. The search keyword
can accept up to six domain names as values.
The resolver will perform its search using the order specified after the search
keyword.
Fields are separated by one or more spaces or tab characters. If /etc/resolv.conf contains a search
and a domain directive, the resolver will use whichever directive comes first in the file.
EXAMPLES
Example lines from a /etc/resolv.conf file are shown below:
domain dev1.anyfirm.com
nameserver 123.456.78.90
nameserver 123.456.78.91
RELATED INFORMATION
Files: hosts(4), networks(4), protocols(4), resolv.conf(5), services(4).
Commands: gethostbyaddr(3), gethostbyname(3) setnetent(3).
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