.\" libsocket Copyright 1997, 1998 by Indrek Mandre
.\" libsocket Copyright 1997, 1998 by Richard Dawe
.\" Manual pages written by Richard Dawe
.\"
.TH HOST.CONF 5 "11 June 1998" "libsocket 0.7.2" "libsocket Reference"
.SH NAME
host.conf \- configures the order of name resolving
.SH DESCRIPTION
This file tells the networking libraries which name resolving resources to use,
and in what order.
.sp
Valid sources are
.BR hosts ", " bind " and " nis .
.B hosts
refers to the file
.IR hosts ,
which contains name to IP address mappings.
.B bind
refers to DNS servers, which are configured elsewhere
.RI ( resolv.conf
- see
.BR resolver (5)).
.I nis
refers to Network Information Services, which probably won't be very common in
a Windows environment, but might be present if Unix hosts are used.
.sp
If you have DNS servers, the recommended order is
.BR bind " then " hosts ,
i.e.
.HP
.RS
order bind, hosts
.RE
.sp
If you don't have a DNS server, then only
.B hosts
is required, like so:
.HP
.RS
order hosts
.RE
.sp
If you specify
.B bind
as well as
.B hosts
without a DNS server, then programs are likely to stall when resolving names.
.SH FILES
.IR /etc/host.conf " (Linux),"
.IR C:\eWINDOWS\eHOST.CONF " (Windows)"
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR hosts "(5), " resolver (5)