Xref: utzoo comp.mail.sendmail:86 comp.dcom.lans:1820 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)