RESOLVER(5)                     Domain/OS BSD                      RESOLVER(5)



NAME
     resolver - resolver configuration file

SYNOPSIS
     /etc/resolv.conf

DESCRIPTION
     The resolver configuration file contains information that is read by the
     resolver routines the first time they are invoked by a process.  The file
     is designed to be human readable and contains a list of name-value pairs
     that provide various types of resolver information.

     On a normally configured system this file should not be necessary.  The
     only name server to be queried will be on the local machine and the
     domain name is retrieved from the system.

     The different configuration options are

     nameserver   Followed by the Internet address (in dot notation) of a name
                  server that the resolver should query.  At least one name
                  server should be listed.  Up to MAXNS (currently 3) name
                  servers may be listed, in that case the resolver library
                  queries tries them in the order listed.  If no nameserver
                  entries are present, the default is to use the name server
                  on the local machine.  (The algorithm used is to try a name
                  server, and if the query times out, try the next, until out
                  of name servers, then repeat trying all the name servers
                  until a maximum number of retries are made).

     domain       Followed by a domain name, that is the default domain to
                  append to names that do not have a dot in them.  If no
                  domain entries are present, the domain returned by
                  gethostname(2) is used (everything after the first ".").
                  Finally, if the host name does not contain a domain part,
                  the root domain is assumed.

     The name value pair must appear on a single line, and the keyword (e.g.
     nameserver) must start the line.  The value follows the keyword,
     separated by white space.

FILES
     /etc/resolv.conf

SEE ALSO
     gethostbyname(3N), resolver(3), named(8)
     Name Server Operations Guide for BIND