Sorry for the delay...
The problem ( which I knew about but failed to mention in my request )
is that localhost is not entered into the tables on the name server.
Of the 5 responses I received, all stated that the entry must exist.
Here is one of the best explanations I got because I don't administer
the nameserver and.
From: Craig_Everhart@transarc.com
Nope, there's generally no reason to scan /etc/hosts if you're just
going to ask the domain system anyway. The resolver scans /etc/hosts
only if a nameserver isn't available.
All the bind documentation I've seen (the Bind Operators' Guide) says
that every server is effectively a primary server for the ``localhost''
domain (both name-to-address and address-to-name). The ``localhost''
You need to add primary files to named.boot that look something like:
primary localhost local.zone
primary 0.0.127.in-addr.arpa named.local
local.zone:
@ IN SOA your.host.name you.your.host.name (
1 ; serial
36000 ; refresh
18000 ; retry
1728000 ; expire
864000 ) ; minimum
IN NS your.host.name.
IN A 127.0.0.1
IN A 127.0.0.1
named.local:
;
; Based on the named.local example from Berkeley (dated 21 Jan 1986.)
;
@ IN SOA your.host.name. you.your.host.name. (
1.1 ; Serial #
3600 ; refresh every hr.
300 ; retry every 5 min.
360000 ; expire in 100 hrs.
14400 ) ; min
life is 24 hrs.
IN NS your.host.name.
1 IN PTR localhost.
--------
Greg Earle <earle@poseur.JPL.NASA.GOV> suggested the same
action but explained
> A libc.so that uses DNS talks to the nameserver(s) first, and it *only* looks
> in /etc/hosts if it gets "Connection Refused" when it tries to talk to all
> of the nameservers in /etc/resolv.conf.
smb@ulysses.att.com also suggested I use loghost as a cname to it.
This is important to syslogd I think.
One more thing... As I was glancing through alt.sources I came across a
posting by Bill Wisner <wisner@ims.alaska.edu>. It is a
modified libresolv.a.
It's a great idea. Here is part of the README
-------- Bill Wisner
This is a modified version of the resolver library from BIND 4.8.3.
In this version, you can configure whether hostname lookups are done
with BIND, the host table, or both, and in what order. This is an
idea that I stole shamelessly from Ultrix.
To configure hostname lookups, edit /etc/resolv.conf. Add an "order"
line to the file. The order line should contain "bind" and/or "local"
seperated by commas. The methods listed will be used in their given order.
order bind - Use BIND only. This is the default.
order bind,local - If BIND lookup fails, resort to the host
table.
order local,bind - Look at the host table before trying BIND.
order local - If you run your system like Fred Flintstone.
Other than this change, this resolver library functions exactly like that
in BIND 4.8.3.
No site-specific configuration should be necessary before compiling; just
run make. Once the library is compiled it can be installed in a few
different ways.
-----------
Thanks to all.
Nicky
-----------------------+---------------------------
Nicky Ayoub nicky@davinci.concordia.ca
Dept. of E.E Concordia University
Montreal QC. H3G 1M8 (514) 848-3107
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