1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
|
'\" t
.\" Copyright 1993 David Metcalfe (david@prism.demon.co.uk)
.\" and (C) Copyright 2015 Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
.\"
.\" SPDX-License-Identifier: Linux-man-pages-copyleft
.\"
.\" References consulted:
.\" Linux libc source code
.\" Lewine's _POSIX Programmer's Guide_ (O'Reilly & Associates, 1991)
.\" 386BSD man pages
.\" Modified 1993-07-25 by Rik Faith (faith@cs.unc.edu)
.\" Modified 2004-10-31 by aeb
.\"
.TH resolver 3 2023-10-31 "Linux man-pages 6.06"
.SH NAME
res_ninit, res_nquery, res_nsearch, res_nquerydomain, res_nmkquery, res_nsend,
res_nclose,
res_init, res_query, res_search, res_querydomain, res_mkquery, res_send,
dn_comp, dn_expand \-
resolver routines
.SH LIBRARY
Resolver library
.RI ( libresolv ", " \-lresolv )
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.B #include <netinet/in.h>
.B #include <arpa/nameser.h>
.B #include <resolv.h>
.P
.B struct __res_state;
.B typedef struct __res_state *res_state;
.P
.BI "int res_ninit(res_state " statep );
.P
.BI "void res_nclose(res_state " statep );
.P
.BI "int res_nquery(res_state " statep ,
.BI " const char *" dname ", int " class ", int " type ,
.BI " unsigned char " answer [. anslen "], int " anslen );
.P
.BI "int res_nsearch(res_state " statep ,
.BI " const char *" dname ", int " class ", int " type ,
.BI " unsigned char " answer [. anslen "], int " anslen );
.P
.BI "int res_nquerydomain(res_state " statep ,
.BI " const char *" name ", const char *" domain ,
.BI " int " class ", int " type ", unsigned char " answer [. anslen ],
.BI " int " anslen );
.P
.BI "int res_nmkquery(res_state " statep ,
.BI " int " op ", const char *" dname ", int " class ,
.BI " int " type ", const unsigned char " data [. datalen "], \
int " datalen ,
.BI " const unsigned char *" newrr ,
.BI " unsigned char " buf [. buflen "], int " buflen );
.P
.BI "int res_nsend(res_state " statep ,
.BI " const unsigned char " msg [. msglen "], int " msglen ,
.BI " unsigned char " answer [. anslen "], int " anslen );
.P
.BI "int dn_comp(const char *" exp_dn ", unsigned char " comp_dn [. length ],
.BI " int " length ", unsigned char **" dnptrs ,
.BI " unsigned char **" lastdnptr );
.P
.BI "int dn_expand(const unsigned char *" msg ,
.BI " const unsigned char *" eomorig ,
.BI " const unsigned char *" comp_dn ", char " exp_dn [. length ],
.BI " int " length );
.P
.B [[deprecated]] extern struct __res_state _res;
.P
.B [[deprecated]] int res_init(void);
.P
.B [[deprecated]]
.BI "int res_query(const char *" dname ", int " class ", int " type ,
.BI " unsigned char " answer [. anslen "], int " anslen );
.P
.B [[deprecated]]
.BI "int res_search(const char *" dname ", int " class ", int " type ,
.BI " unsigned char " answer [. anslen "], int " anslen );
.P
.B [[deprecated]]
.BI "int res_querydomain(const char *" name ", const char *" domain ,
.BI " int " class ", int " type ", unsigned char " answer [. anslen ],
.BI " int " anslen );
.P
.B [[deprecated]]
.BI "int res_mkquery(int " op ", const char *" dname ", int " class ,
.BI " int " type ", const unsigned char " data [. datalen "], \
int " datalen ,
.BI " const unsigned char *" newrr ,
.BI " unsigned char " buf [. buflen "], int " buflen );
.P
.B [[deprecated]]
.BI "int res_send(const unsigned char " msg [. msglen "], int " msglen ,
.BI " unsigned char " answer [. anslen "], int " anslen );
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B Note:
This page is incomplete (various resolver functions provided by glibc
are not described) and likely out of date.
.P
The functions described below make queries to and interpret
the responses from Internet domain name servers.
.P
The API consists of a set of more modern, reentrant functions
and an older set of nonreentrant functions that have been superseded.
The traditional resolver interfaces such as
.BR res_init ()
and
.BR res_query ()
use some static (global) state stored in the
.I _res
structure, rendering these functions non-thread-safe.
BIND 8.2 introduced a set of new interfaces
.BR res_ninit (),
.BR res_nquery (),
and so on, which take a
.I res_state
as their first argument, so you can use a per-thread resolver state.
.P
The
.BR res_ninit ()
and
.BR res_init ()
functions read the configuration files (see
.BR resolv.conf (5))
to get the default domain name and name
server address(es).
If no server is given, the local host is tried.
If no domain is given, that associated with the local host is used.
It can be overridden with the environment variable
.BR LOCALDOMAIN .
.BR res_ninit ()
or
.BR res_init ()
is normally executed by the first call to one of the
other functions.
Every call to
.BR res_ninit ()
requires a corresponding call to
.BR res_nclose ()
to free memory allocated by
.BR res_ninit ()
and subsequent calls to
.BR res_nquery ().
.P
The
.BR res_nquery ()
and
.BR res_query ()
functions query the name server for the
fully qualified domain name \fIname\fP of specified \fItype\fP and
\fIclass\fP.
The reply is left in the buffer \fIanswer\fP of length
\fIanslen\fP supplied by the caller.
.P
The
.BR res_nsearch ()
and
.BR res_search ()
functions make a query and waits for the response like
.BR res_nquery ()
and
.BR res_query (),
but in addition they implement the default and search
rules controlled by
.B RES_DEFNAMES
and
.B RES_DNSRCH
(see description of
\fI_res\fP options below).
.P
The
.BR res_nquerydomain ()
and
.BR res_querydomain ()
functions make a query using
.BR res_nquery ()/ res_query ()
on the concatenation of \fIname\fP and \fIdomain\fP.
.P
The following functions are lower-level routines used by
.BR res_nquery ()/ res_query ().
.P
The
.BR res_nmkquery ()
and
.BR res_mkquery ()
functions construct a query message in \fIbuf\fP
of length \fIbuflen\fP for the domain name \fIdname\fP.
The query type
\fIop\fP is one of the following (typically
.BR QUERY ):
.TP
.B QUERY
Standard query.
.TP
.B IQUERY
Inverse query.
This option was removed in glibc 2.26,
.\" commit e4e794841e3140875f2aa86b90e2ada3d61e1244
since it has not been supported by DNS servers for a very long time.
.TP
.B NS_NOTIFY_OP
Notify secondary of SOA (Start of Authority) change.
.P
\fInewrr\fP is currently unused.
.P
The
.BR res_nsend ()
and
.BR res_send ()
function send a preformatted query given in
\fImsg\fP of length \fImsglen\fP and returns the answer in \fIanswer\fP
which is of length \fIanslen\fP.
They will call
.BR res_ninit ()/ res_init ()
if it has not already been called.
.P
The
.BR dn_comp ()
function compresses the domain name \fIexp_dn\fP
and stores it in the buffer \fIcomp_dn\fP of length \fIlength\fP.
The compression uses an array of pointers \fIdnptrs\fP to previously
compressed names in the current message.
The first pointer points
to the beginning of the message and the list ends with NULL.
The limit of the array is specified by \fIlastdnptr\fP.
If \fIdnptr\fP is NULL, domain names are not compressed.
If \fIlastdnptr\fP is NULL, the list
of labels is not updated.
.P
The
.BR dn_expand ()
function expands the compressed domain name
\fIcomp_dn\fP to a full domain name, which is placed in the buffer
\fIexp_dn\fP of size \fIlength\fP.
The compressed name is contained
in a query or reply message, and \fImsg\fP points to the beginning of
the message.
.P
The resolver routines use configuration and state information
contained in a
.I __res_state
structure (either passed as the
.I statep
argument, or in the global variable
.IR _res ,
in the case of the older nonreentrant functions).
The only field of this structure that is normally manipulated by the
user is the
.I options
field.
This field can contain the bitwise "OR"
of the following options:
.TP
.B RES_INIT
True if
.BR res_ninit ()
or
.BR res_init ()
has been called.
.TP
.B RES_DEBUG
Print debugging messages.
This option is available only if glibc was built with debugging enabled,
.\" See resolv/README.
.\" Support for RES_DEBUG was made conditional in glibc 2.2.
which is not the default.
.TP
.BR RES_AAONLY " (unimplemented; deprecated in glibc 2.25)"
Accept authoritative answers only.
.BR res_send ()
continues until
it finds an authoritative answer or returns an error.
This option was present but unimplemented until glibc 2.24;
since glibc 2.25, it is deprecated, and its usage produces a warning.
.TP
.B RES_USEVC
Use TCP connections for queries rather than UDP datagrams.
.TP
.BR RES_PRIMARY " (unimplemented; deprecated in glibc 2.25)"
Query primary domain name server only.
This option was present but unimplemented until glibc 2.24;
since glibc 2.25, it is deprecated, and its usage produces a warning.
.TP
.B RES_IGNTC
Ignore truncation errors.
Don't retry with TCP.
.TP
.B RES_RECURSE
Set the recursion desired bit in queries.
Recursion is carried out
by the domain name server, not by
.BR res_send ().
[Enabled by default].
.TP
.B RES_DEFNAMES
If set,
.BR res_search ()
will append the default domain name to
single component names\[em]that is, those that do not contain a dot.
[Enabled by default].
.TP
.B RES_STAYOPEN
Used with
.B RES_USEVC
to keep the TCP connection open between queries.
.TP
.B RES_DNSRCH
If set,
.BR res_search ()
will search for hostnames in the current
domain and in parent domains.
This option is used by
.BR gethostbyname (3).
[Enabled by default].
.TP
.B RES_INSECURE1
Accept a response from a wrong server.
This can be used to detect potential security hazards,
but you need to compile glibc with debugging enabled and use
.B RES_DEBUG
option (for debug purpose only).
.TP
.B RES_INSECURE2
Accept a response which contains a wrong query.
This can be used to detect potential security hazards,
but you need to compile glibc with debugging enabled and use
.B RES_DEBUG
option (for debug purpose only).
.TP
.B RES_NOALIASES
Disable usage of
.B HOSTALIASES
environment variable.
.TP
.B RES_USE_INET6
Try an AAAA query before an A query inside the
.BR gethostbyname (3)
function, and map IPv4 responses in IPv6 "tunneled form" if no AAAA records
are found but an A record set exists.
Since glibc 2.25, this option is deprecated,
and its usage produces a warning;
applications should use
.BR getaddrinfo (3),
rather than
.BR gethostbyname (3).
.TP
.B RES_ROTATE
Causes round-robin selection of name servers from among those listed.
This has the effect of spreading the query load among all listed servers,
rather than having all clients try the first listed server first every
time.
.TP
.BR RES_NOCHECKNAME " (unimplemented; deprecated in glibc 2.25)"
Disable the modern BIND checking of incoming hostnames and mail names
for invalid characters such as underscore (_), non-ASCII,
or control characters.
This option was present until glibc 2.24;
since glibc 2.25, it is deprecated, and its usage produces a warning.
.TP
.BR RES_KEEPTSIG " (unimplemented; deprecated in glibc 2.25)"
Do not strip TSIG records.
This option was present but unimplemented until glibc 2.24;
since glibc 2.25, it is deprecated, and its usage produces a warning.
.TP
.BR RES_BLAST " (unimplemented; deprecated in glibc 2.25)"
Send each query simultaneously and recursively to all servers.
This option was present but unimplemented until glibc 2.24;
since glibc 2.25, it is deprecated, and its usage produces a warning.
.TP
.BR RES_USEBSTRING " (glibc 2.3.4 to glibc 2.24)"
Make reverse IPv6 lookups using the bit-label format described in RFC 2673;
if this option is not set (which is the default), then nibble format is used.
This option was removed in glibc 2.25,
since it relied on a backward-incompatible
DNS extension that was never deployed on the Internet.
.TP
.BR RES_NOIP6DOTINT " (glibc 2.24 and earlier)"
Use
.I ip6.arpa
zone in IPv6 reverse lookup instead of
.IR ip6.int ,
which is deprecated since glibc 2.3.4.
This option is present up to and including glibc 2.24,
where it is enabled by default.
In glibc 2.25, this option was removed.
.TP
.BR RES_USE_EDNS0 " (since glibc 2.6)"
Enables support for the DNS extensions (EDNS0) described in RFC 2671.
.TP
.BR RES_SNGLKUP " (since glibc 2.10)"
By default, glibc performs IPv4 and IPv6 lookups in parallel
since glibc 2.9.
Some appliance DNS servers cannot handle these queries properly
and make the requests time out.
This option disables the behavior and makes glibc
perform the IPv6 and IPv4 requests sequentially
(at the cost of some slowdown of the resolving process).
.TP
.B RES_SNGLKUPREOP
When
.B RES_SNGLKUP
option is enabled, opens a new socket for the each request.
.TP
.B RES_USE_DNSSEC
Use DNSSEC with OK bit in OPT record.
This option implies
.BR RES_USE_EDNS0 .
.TP
.B RES_NOTLDQUERY
Do not look up unqualified name as a top-level domain (TLD).
.TP
.B RES_DEFAULT
Default option which implies:
.BR RES_RECURSE ,
.BR RES_DEFNAMES ,
.BR RES_DNSRCH ,
and
.BR RES_NOIP6DOTINT .
.\"
.SH RETURN VALUE
The
.BR res_ninit ()
and
.BR res_init ()
functions return 0 on success, or \-1 if an error
occurs.
.P
The
.BR res_nquery (),
.BR res_query (),
.BR res_nsearch (),
.BR res_search (),
.BR res_nquerydomain (),
.BR res_querydomain (),
.BR res_nmkquery (),
.BR res_mkquery (),
.BR res_nsend (),
and
.BR res_send ()
functions return the length
of the response, or \-1 if an error occurs.
.P
The
.BR dn_comp ()
and
.BR dn_expand ()
functions return the length
of the compressed name, or \-1 if an error occurs.
.P
In the case of an error return from
.BR res_nquery (),
.BR res_query (),
.BR res_nsearch (),
.BR res_search (),
.BR res_nquerydomain (),
or
.BR res_querydomain (),
the global variable
.I h_errno
(see
.BR gethostbyname (3))
can be consulted to determine the cause of the error.
.SH FILES
.TP
.I /etc/resolv.conf
resolver configuration file
.TP
.I /etc/host.conf
resolver configuration file
.SH ATTRIBUTES
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
.BR attributes (7).
.TS
allbox;
lbx lb lb
l l l.
Interface Attribute Value
T{
.na
.nh
.BR res_ninit (),
.BR res_nclose (),
.BR res_nquery (),
.BR res_nsearch (),
.BR res_nquerydomain (),
.BR res_nsend ()
T} Thread safety MT-Safe locale
T{
.na
.nh
.BR res_nmkquery (),
.BR dn_comp (),
.BR dn_expand ()
T} Thread safety MT-Safe
.TE
.SH STANDARDS
None.
.SH HISTORY
4.3BSD.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR gethostbyname (3),
.BR resolv.conf (5),
.BR resolver (5),
.BR hostname (7),
.BR named (8)
.P
The GNU C library source file
.IR resolv/README .
|