thanks to everyone who replied. my original question
was:
> can someone tell me what the consequences are of
> including more than 3 nameserver entries in the
> resolv.conf file. the os is 4.1.4, and the
> version of bind shipped with that os.
>
> my supervisor says that limiting the number to
> 3 is a recommendation only.
the limit is set in /usr/include/resolv.h with the
variable MAXNS. the default value for Sun OS 4.1.4
is 3. this is also given in the man page on resolv.conf.
i checked and no one here has rebuilt and
installed newer versions of bind.
the general consus was that additional nameserver
entries are ignored. evi smith's book,
_UNIX System Administration Handbook_, states that
Bind begins with the first name server listed in the
resolv.conf file, and queries each server 4 times
before going to the next entry.
several people reminded me that the version of Bind
shipped with 4.1.4 is old, outdated, and buggy. i
will look into building and installing the latest version
after i get this DNS subdomain set up and running.
the current maintainer of Bind is the Internet Software
Consortium at www.isc.org. they have links to a lot of
useful things there.
again thanks to the following people who replied:
Gary Smith <gsmith@sbti.com>
John Fusselman <jfusselm@austin.dsccc.com
Joel Lee <jlee@thomas.com>
Rick Kelly <rmk@rmkhome.rmkhome.com>
Glenn Satchell <Glenn.Satchell@uniq.com.au>
James Ashton <James.Ashton@keating.anu.edu.au>
Rich Kulawiec <rsk@itw.com>
Stephen Frost <sfrost@mitretek.org>
Christopher L. Barnard <cbar44@tsg.cbot.com>
Rodney C. Marable <marable@firefly.net>
Arthur Hyun <arthur@psi.com>
David Dhunjishaw <dave@psa.pencom.com>
cathy
-- Cathy L. Smith Dallas Semiconductor csmith@dalsemi.com