Re: LYNX-DEV dns lookups

[Foteos Macrides]

Andy Harper <address@hidden> wrote:
>>> I discovered the following problem while using LYNX compiled with the 
>>> socketshr
>>> library for VMS to access a service provided by the british library:
>>> 
>>>   Despite the name (opac97.bl.uk) resolving to an IP address, lynx fails to
>>>   connect with:
>>>     "unable to access remote host!"
>>
>>I've managed to connect fairly quickly to opac97.bl.uk using Lynx version 
>>2.7.1
>>with some of Fote's modifications installed. We're using MultiNet v4.0A under
>>OpenVMS 6.2 on a VAX.
>
>
>  well exactly, so what is socketshr doing that is different? Does the multinet
>  gethostbyname routine NOT fail if it cannot do the reverse lookup?  I shal
>  obviously have to write a short test program!

        Empirically (i.e., looking at the HTParseInet() phost structure
with the debugger), MultiNet is loading the name argument of the
gethostbyname() call into phost->h_name, e.g., for www.wfbr.edu it becomes
that, not sci.wfbr.edu.  I don't see why any of that matters, because
Lynx doesn't use the phost->h_name element, and if you can tweak the
socketshr library's gethostbyname() such that it loads its name argument
and returns a valid pointer if the other elements are valid, it should
work as with MultiNet.

                                Fote

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