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Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!rutgers!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!cornell!rochester!uhura.cc.rochester.edu!ur-valhalla!socrates.ee.rochester.edu!deke
From: deke@socrates.ee.rochester.edu (Dikran Kassabian)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.sendmail,comp.dcom.lans
Subject: Re: sendmail, the resolver and /etc/hosts
Summary: why not gethostbyname()?
Message-ID: <1469@valhalla.ee.rochester.edu>
Date: 20 Sep 88 13:38:33 GMT
References: <713@ncar.ucar.edu>
Sender: usenet@valhalla.ee.rochester.edu
Reply-To: deke@ee.rochester.edu (Deke Kassabian)
Organization: UR Dept. of Electrical Engg, Rochester NY 14627
Lines: 18


In article <713@ncar.ucar.edu> woods@ncar.UCAR.EDU (Greg Woods) writes:
>I want to modify sendmail to check the /etc/hosts file if a host name lookup
>to the name server fails with a non-temporary error. 

I always thought this was a great idea, and never heard anyone else
mention it.  I'll open myself up to flames and suggest going one step
further....  why not have gethostbyname() try the hosts file once upon
failing to resolve a name via named?

I guess one argument would be that this might contribute to the slow
changeover to nameservers, allowing people to get by simply by registering
in local host tables and not with a nameserver.  But it would certainly
help to make more sites reachable right now.


  ^Deke Kassabian,   deke@ee.rochester.edu or   rochester!ur-valhalla!deke
   Univ of Rochester, Dept of EE, Rochester, NY 14627     (+1 716-275-3106)