RESOLV.CONF(5)

NAME
resolv.conf - configuration file for domain name system resolver

DESCRIPTION

The resolver configuration file contains information that is read by the domain name system resolver library the first time it is invoked in a process. It is only necessary to create this file to specify an explicit default domain name other than the default one derived from the domainname(1) command, or to specify name servers to use on other machines. The file is designed to be human readable and contains a list of keyword-value pairs that provide various types of resolver information.

    keyword value

The different configuration options are:

nameserver address
    The Internet address (in dot notation) of a name server that the resolver should query. Up to MAXNS (currently 3) name servers may be listed. In that case the resolver library queries tries them in the order listed. The policy 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. If there are no nameserver lines in this file, then the loopback address is used, so there must be a name server running on the same machine.

domain name
    The default domain to append to names that do not have a dot in them, and used in searches. If there is no domain line in this file, then it is derived from the domain set by the domainname(1) command, usually by removing the first component. For example, if the domainname(1) is set to ``foo.podunk.edu'' then the default domain used by the resolver will be ``podunk.edu''. The is the same policy used by sendmail(8).

The keyword-value pair must appear on a single line, and the keyword (for instance, nameserver) must start the line. The value follows the keyword, separated by white space.

FILES
/etc/resolv.conf

SEE ALSO
domainname(1), gethostent(3N), resolver(3), named(8C), nslookup(8C), RFC 1034, RFC 1035