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Path: utzoo!utgpu!utcsri!uthub!utecfb!larry
From: larry@utecfb.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.bugs.4bsd,comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: problems with microvax ethernet
Message-ID: <144@utecfb.Toronto.Edu>
Date: Mon, 4-May-87 16:41:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: utecfb.144
Posted: Mon May  4 16:41:27 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 6-May-87 01:52:55 EDT
References: <170@uw-apl.UUCP>
Reply-To: larry@ecf.toronto.edu (Larry Philps)
Organization: Engineering Computing Facility, University of Toronto
Lines: 28
Keywords: named, ifconfig, 4.3, hanging
Xref: utgpu comp.bugs.4bsd:317 comp.unix.wizards:1980
Summary: ifconfig should not be given symbolic names in 4.3BSD

We had similar problems when we first brought up 4.3, and it turned
out that the whole problem was a result of the nameserver.  First
when you run ifconfig with a symbolic name such as
	ifconfig lo0 localhost
the gethost* routines will try to connect to named to find the
address for localhost.  Unfortunately, the gethost* routines connect
to the named using localhost.port#, thus they will hang for 45 seconds
(the network timeout interval) before giving up.  If you have several
ifconfig's in a row, then they will hang one after another.

I gets worse also because the internal named timer for trying to get
information from another nameserver is 3 minutes!  Thus it is likely
that your system did not really hang, you just did not leave it alone
long enough to get past all the timeouts in rc.local

We solved the problem by not putting any symbolic names in ifconfig
lines.  Make the host addresses real internet addresses like
	ifconfig lo0 127.1
and the system will come up.  Individual progarms will still hang if
named is running, but is not configured properly.  You should comment
its invocation out of rc.local.

One last thing, I am not in charge of the nameserver stuff around here,
but I am close enough to know the thing has evolved a lot since the
version which went out on the 4.3 tape.  You should try to obtain
a newer version, although I don't know where you can get it from.
There is a mailing list out there somewhere that discusses bugs/fixes
for the beast.

Larry Philps	Engineering Computing Facility	University of Toronto
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