Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!linac!att!ucbvax!dalvm41b.vnet.ibm.com!freese
From: freese@dalvm41b.vnet.ibm.com ("Bradley T. Freese")
Newsgroups: comp.unix.aix
Subject: Name Resolution
Message-ID: <9105142216.AA18344@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 14 May 91 21:50:09 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Lines: 18

RRH@vm.nrc.ca writes:

> Hello Netters,
> Our AIX user has run into another question/problem. On our SUNs &
> SGIs  the command ping vm works. The host vm has a fully qualified name
> of  vm.nrc.ca . The AIX, SUN and SGI are in the di.nrc.ca domain.
> However  the ping vm fails and ping vm. or ping vm.nrc.ca   The
> /etc/resolv.conf has domain di.nrc.ca.  Is there any way to tell   the
> AIX machine  to behave like the others or are we stuck with it?

In a word, yes.  The behavior you report is standard for AIX.
Basically, AIX has two methods for resolving a name, based on whether
it has a period ('.') in it.  If the name has a period *anywhere* in
it, AIX simply passes it to the domain name servers unchanged.  If
the name has no period in it, AIX appends the domain name found
in /etc/resolv.conf and passes the result to the name servers.  Either
way, if the name servers do not respond, AIX searches through
/etc/hosts and then quits.