Xref: utzoo comp.unix.questions:29442 comp.unix.admin:1223
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.admin
Path: utzoo!censor!geac!maccs!edge!johnb
From: johnb@edge.cis.mcmaster.ca (John Benjamins)
Subject: Re: Getting SunOS 4.1 to use DNS -and- /etc/hosts (long)
Message-ID: <1991Mar13.232911.1867@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca>
Organization: C.I.S., McMaster  University, Hamilton, Ontario, CANADA
References: <1991Mar9.171331.22378@unhd.unh.edu> <1991Mar11.014434.23710@wdl1.wdl.loral.com>

In article <1991Mar11.014434.23710@wdl1.wdl.loral.com> rob@wdl50.wdl.loral.com (Rob Riepel) writes:
>rg@msel.unh.edu (Roger Gonzalez) writes:
>
>>Sun, for some strange reason, ships their host resolver routines linked
>>to routines that -only- use /etc/hosts.  I wrestled with this for a
[ -- lots of stuff deleted -- ]
>Now if you're not using NIS (yellow pages), you'll have to do a little work to
>use DNS.  The amount of work you'll have to do depends on whether you want DNS
>lookups to "do the right thing."  Now an aside to define "the right thing"
[ -- lots of stuff deleted -- ]

I particularly like the Virtual Information Service (vis) that Mips put into
RISCos 4.5x.  It lets you specify hostname resolving using /etc/hosts, nis
and/or dns, and you can specify the order in which uses them.  This is all
specified in /etc/vis.conf.  For example,

hosts: dns files nis

specifies to use dns first, /etc/hosts next, and nis last to resolve a host
name.  Also vis.conf has entries for group, passwd, services, protocols, etc
(These other name services do not have a dns entry of course:-).  Not only
that but by using an environment variable, you can specify a different
vis.conf file PER APPLICATION!  Now that's what I call flexability!

P.S. I don't work for Mips, or even get paid by them, etc, etc.

E. John Benjamins                                      BITNET: JOHNB@MCMASTER
Computing and Information Services,       Internet: johnb@edge.cis.mcmaster.ca
ABB 131, McMaster University,             voice-mail: (416)525-9140 ext. 2920
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada