10.7 The /etc/netsvc.conf
File
10.7 The /etc/netsvc.conf
File
When a process receives a symbolic host name and needs to resolve it into an address, it calls a resolver routine. By default, resolver routines attempt to resolve names using the above resources. BIND/DNS will be tried first. If the /etc/resolv.conf file does not exist or if BIND/DNS could not find the name, NIS is queried if it is running. If NIS is not running, then the local /etc/hosts file is searched. If none of these services could find the name then the resolver routines return with HOST_NOT_FOUND . If all of the services were unavailable, then the resolver routines return with SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE.
The NSORDER environment variable can be set to change the order the resolver routine takes to resolve a host name. If the NSORDER environment variable is set as:
NSORDER=local,bind
then the /etc/hosts file will be used for resolving the host names before the Domain Name Server is used.
If a particular machine in a subnet cannot resolve a hostname correctly, and the /etc/netsvc.conf file does not exist or is in order, the default order may have been altered by the setting of the NSORDER environment variable.
10.9 The ARP
Cache