On Thu, Feb 09, 2023 at 03:02:22PM -0500, gene heskett wrote: > Just last week I added another bpi5, copied the /etc/hosts file and > restarted networking. It could NOT find the other machines on my net UNTIL I > added that search directive to resolv.conf. This net is about 50/50 buster > and bullseye.
Define "find". What command did you run? What was the result? What were all of the relevant pieces of the name lookup configuration at that moment? unicorn:~$ grep hosts: /etc/nsswitch.conf hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns unicorn:~$ cat /etc/resolv.conf search wooledge.org nameserver 127.0.0.1 nameserver 10.0.0.1 nameserver 8.8.8.8 unicorn:~$ grep gene /etc/hosts 11.12.13.14 hi.gene unicorn:~$ getent hosts hi.gene 11.12.13.14 hi.gene unicorn:~$ ping hi.gene PING hi.gene (11.12.13.14) 56(84) bytes of data. ^C --- hi.gene ping statistics --- 2 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 1002ms If "find" for you means "I ran a CnC program that was written in 1995 and is a statically linked binary" then it's conceivable that it would be looking for /etc/host.conf definitions, because it was statically linked with libc5 resolver code. In that case, I would expect that adding the proper libc5 setup in /etc/host.conf would cause it to start working. Is it POSSIBLE that the libc5 resolver code from the mid 1990s would also look for host.conf stuff in resolv.conf? Uh... maybe, I don't know. Who the hell knows. We would have to have your program (or something from that age) to test with. Maybe strace it and see what it does. But I can't imagine why you would go against all of the documented practices of the time, and put the configuration in the wrong file. Even in this incredibly hypothetical case. There was also a libc4, but I don't remember how it worked. It was much, much too long ago. Early 1990s. If what you're doing is from the libc4 days, then I will apologize. But you've gotta find a single piece of documentation that supports what you're doing.
