[ On Thursday, January 1, 2004 at 15:51:08 (+0100), Manuel Bouyer wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: re-reading /etc/resolv.conf on change
>
> I though about adding a environement variable for this as well, to allow
> a user to use its own resolv.conf (I'd like to be able to have a different
> search than the site-wide one). But it may be better to have env variables
> to override parts of resolv.conf. This needs more thoughs.

All of that sounds just about as dangerous as that stupid HOSTALISES
thing that I've ripped out of my own resolver code.

If you don't have the rights on some machine to change /etc/resolv.conf
then you shouldn't have the right to tell the resolver to use some other
configuration, even if it is only rope for your own execution.

It would be nice to be able to tell res_init() to use a different file,
and its name could be passed through from a command-line option given to
the daemon (i.e. you can change it if you have the rights to (re)start
the daemon), or from an environment variable IFF the programmer deemed
it safe enough to implement such a feature (and again it would only work
iff you have the rights to (re)start the program).  However that's the
very limit such flexibility should be taken to for safety's sake -- in
no case should the generic libc/libresolv code arbitrarily honour any
environment variable that affects its configuration.

-- 
						Greg A. Woods

+1 416 218-0098                  VE3TCP            RoboHack <woods@robohack.ca>
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