ares_init, ares_init_options - Initialize a resolver channel
#include <ares.h>
int ares_init(ares_channel *channel)
int ares_init_options(ares_channel *channel,
struct ares_options *options, int optmask)
cc file.c -lares
The ares_init function initializes a communications channel for name
service lookups. If it returns successfully, ares_init will set the
variable pointed to by channel to a handle used to identify the name
service channel. The caller should invoke ares_destroy(3) on the handle
when the channel is no longer needed.
The ares_init_options function also initializes a name
service channel, with additional options useful for applications requiring
more control over name service configuration. The optmask parameter
specifies which fields in the structure pointed to by options are
set, as follows:
- ARES_OPT_FLAGS
- int flags;
Flags controlling the behavior of the resolver. See below for a description
of possible flag values.
- ARES_OPT_TIMEOUT
- int timeout;
The number of seconds each name server is given to respond to a query on the
first try. (After the first try, the timeout algorithm becomes more
complicated, but scales linearly with the value of timeout.) The
default is five seconds.
- ARES_OPT_TRIES
- int tries;
The number of tries the resolver will try contacting each name server before
giving up. The default is four tries.
- ARES_OPT_NDOTS
- int ndots;
The number of dots which must be present in a domain name for it to be
queried for "as is" prior to querying for it with the default
domain extensions appended. The default value is 1 unless set otherwise by
resolv.conf or the RES_OPTIONS environment variable.
- ARES_OPT_PORT
- unsigned short port;
The port to use for queries (both TCP and UDP), in network byte order. The
default value is 53 (in network byte order), the standard name service
port.
- ARES_OPT_SERVERS
- struct in_addr *servers;
int nservers;
The list of servers to contact, instead of the servers specified in
resolv.conf or the local named.
- ARES_OPT_DOMAINS
- char **domains;
int ndomains;
The domains to search, instead of the domains specified in resolv.conf or
the domain derived from the kernel hostname variable.
- ARES_OPT_LOOKUPS
- char *lookups;
The lookups to perform for host queries. lookups should be set to a
string of the characters "b" or "f", where
"b" indicates a DNS lookup and "f" indicates a lookup
in the hosts file.
The flags field should be the bitwise or of some subset of
the following values:
- ARES_FLAG_USEVC
- Always use TCP queries (the "virtual circuit") instead of UDP
queries. Normally, TCP is only used if a UDP query yields a truncated
result.
- ARES_FLAG_PRIMARY
- Only query the first server in the list of servers to query.
- ARES_FLAG_IGNTC
- If a truncated response to a UDP query is received, do not fall back to
TCP; simply continue on with the truncated response.
- ARES_FLAG_NORECURSE
- Do not set the "recursion desired" bit on outgoing queries, so
that the name server being contacted will not try to fetch the answer from
other servers if it doesn't know the answer locally.
- ARES_FLAG_STAYOPEN
- Do not close communciations sockets when the number of active queries
drops to zero.
- ARES_FLAG_NOSEARCH
- Do not use the default search domains; only query hostnames as-is or as
aliases.
- ARES_FLAG_NOALIASES
- Do not honor the HOSTALIASES environment variable, which normally
specifies a file of hostname translations.
- ARES_FLAG_NOCHECKRESP
- Do not discard responses with the SERVFAIL, NOTIMP, or REFUSED response
code or responses whose questions don't match the questions in the
request. Primarily useful for writing clients which might be used to test
or debug name servers.
ares_init or ares_init_options can return any of the following
values:
- ARES_SUCCESS
- Initialization succeeded.
- ARES_EFILE
- A configuration file could not be read.
- ARES_ENOMEM
- The process's available memory was exhausted.
Greg Hudson, MIT Information Systems
Copyright 1998 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.