Subject: Bug#4149: /etc/resolv.conf gets bad configuration

From: Rob Leslie <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 14 Aug 1996 03:15:59 -0400

Package: base(?)
Version: 1.1.0-14

During the initial installation of Debian 1.1, the user is asked for
information which is used to construct an /etc/resolv.conf file.

However:

  - If the user enters more than one nameserver IP address, all the
    addresses are listed on a single line in /etc/resolv.conf; they
    should instead appear on separate lines, one for each address.

  - Both "domain" and "search" directives are present in the file.
    These are mutually exclusive, and only the last instance is
    effective.

    "domain" is in fact only a special case of "search" that implies
    a particular pattern. For example, the following are equivalent:

        domain foo.bar.baz.com
        search foo.bar.baz.com bar.baz.com baz.com

    Having both directives in the file is misleading and can cause
    problems if the user makes an innocent change to reverse the order
    of these lines; therefore I would recommend only one be written
    during the installation procedure.

-- 
Robert Leslie
[email-masked]

---

From: "Peter Tobias" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 00:44:51 +0200 (MET DST)

>         search foo.bar.baz.com bar.baz.com baz.com

No, this has been changed in libc-4.6.* and above

H.J. Lu writes in the release notes for libc-4.6.20:
> With bind-4.9.3beta9, you may have to change /etc/resolv.conf. The
> resolver's default "search" list will be just the entire "domain" name
> rather than the sliding window it had before 4.9.2. This will make the
> default search list shorter, so folks who are saying "domain a.b.c"
> and relying on the implicit "search a.b.c b.c c" will miss "b.c" and
> "c". So what you have to do is add this line into your /etc/resolv.conf:
>  
> search  a.b.c b.c c

Thanks,

Peter

-- 
 Peter Tobias                                EMail:
 Fachhochschule Ostfriesland                 [email-masked]
 Fachbereich Elektrotechnik und Informatik   [email-masked]
 Constantiaplatz 4, 26723 Emden, Germany     [email-masked]