host versus nslookup

Cathy Almond cathya at isc.org
Sat Oct 15 10:00:11 UTC 2011


On 12/10/11 23:09, Kevin Darcy wrote:
> As far as I know, only HP-UX has hacked nslookup to look at /etc/hosts.
> And I don't think it even looks at the "switch" file or other naming
> sources (e.g. Yellow Plague). HP-UX's nslookup "enhancement" is a
> one-off, I believe.
For the record, on HP-UX it does use the switch file (unless you
specifically tell it to do something different when you run it).

But its use as a troubleshooting tool is limited at best (misleading and
confusing at worst) in that environment for testing how application
resolution will work.  And this is because it uses its own logic and not
the high level resolver APIs that applications call.

(And even if it did use the high level resolver APIs - it wouldn't
necessarily be using them with the same options that an application does
anyway - particularly around IPv6 versus IPv4).



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