[dns-operations] Do Unix stubs round robin nameserver addresses?

[Doug Barton]

On 4/17/15 3:44 PM, Chuck Anderson wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 17, 2015 at 03:06:45PM -0700, Doug Barton wrote:
>> I have always believed (based on both the man pages, and what I've
>> seen in the field) that Unix stub resolvers follow the behavior
>> described in the man page. That is, they try the first 'nameserver'
>> address listed, and if it doesn't get a response before the timeout
>> value expires it then moves on to the next one in line.
>>
>> I was having a discussion with someone about that issue today who
>> insists that they have empirical evidence that this is not the case,
>> that they have seen stubs that round robin the addresses. So, I'm
>> wondering if y'all have seen the same thing?
>
> It is configurable.  See resolv.conf(5), specifically the "rotate"
> option.

Yes, I'm aware of that, thanks. I'm not wondering what my options are, 
I'm wondering what behavior people have observed.

[snip]

> I know my answer was way more than you asked for, but I had to take
> this chance to get the word out :-)

I think you'll find that most people on this list are familiar with the 
challenges you described.

Doug

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