What are these entries in /etc/resolv.conf

[zozza]

My /etc/resolv.conf shows:

# Generated by NetworkManager
domain someuniversity.ac.uk
search someuniversity.ac.uk
nameserver 128.85.161.265
nameserver 128.85.161.241

I understand nameserver but what is the usefulness and relevance of "domain" and "search"?

Thanks .

[luvshines]

man resolv.conf

[zozza]

Point taken - thanks.

So:

domain Local domain name.
Most queries for names within this domain can use short names
relative to the local domain. If no domain entry is present,
the domain is determined from the local hostname returned by
gethostname(2); the domain part is taken to be everything after
the first '.'. Finally, if the hostname does not contain a
domain part, the root domain is assumed.

Therefore the "domain" is just used for searching for ftp or http or whatever sites on that specific domain.

and:

search Search list for host-name lookup.
The search list is normally determined from the local domain
name; by default, it contains only the local domain name.

I'm not so sure what this means. What is the search list - derived from the local domain name - for; for what does it search?

Let's say my /etc/resolv.conf file shows: search name1.name2.somewhere.co.uk then what would the search list search for?

Thanks.

[SeijiSensei]

The "search" directive provides a set of additional domain extensions that the resolver uses when dealing with "unqualified" host names. So if you enter "billspc" it will first try billspc with the domain entry attached, then try it with each extension in the search list until the name resolves. Having both the "domain" and "search" parameters identical seems pretty common these days, though I don't think the "search" entry is needed in that case. It only matters if you want to resolve unqualified names across a number of pre-specified domains other than the one appearing in the "domain" directive.