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.

ares_destroy(3)

Greg Hudson, MIT Information Systems

Copyright 1998 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.