networking (DNS) A general-purpose distributed, replicated,
data query service chiefly used on
Internet for translating
hostname used on the Internet, though such a name is
configured to use a sequence of name servers, based on the
domains in the name being looked for, until a match is found.
The name resolution client (e.g. Unix's gethostbyname()
library function) can be configured to search for host
information in the following order: first in the local
/etc/hosts file, second in
NIS and third in DNS. This
sequencing of Naming Services is sometimes called "name
service switching". Under
Solaris is configured in the file
/etc/nsswitch.conf.
DNS can be queried interactively using the command
nslookup.
BIND is a common DNS server.
(2001-05-14)