ARES_SEARCH(3)

NAME
ares_search - Initiate a DNS query with domain search

SYNOPSIS
#include <ares.h>
typedef void (*ares_callback)(void *arg, int status,
                              int timeouts, unsigned char *abuf,
                              int alen)
void ares_search(ares_channel_t *channel, const char *name,
                 int dnsclass, int type,
                 ares_callback callback, void *arg)

DESCRIPTION
The ares_search function initiates a series of single-question DNS queries on the name service channel identified by channel, using the channel's search domains as well as a host alias file given by the HOSTALIAS environment variable. The parameter name gives the alias name or the base of the query name as a NUL-terminated C string of period-separated labels; if it ends with a period, the channel's search domains will not be used. Periods and backslashes within a label must be escaped with a backslash. The parameters dnsclass and type give the class and type of the query using the values defined in <arpa/nameser.h>. When the query sequence is complete or has failed, the ares library will invoke callback. Completion or failure of the query sequence may happen immediately, or may happen during a later call to ares_process(3) or ares_destroy(3).

If this is called from a thread other than which the main program event loop is running, care needs to be taken to ensure any file descriptor lists are updated immediately within the eventloop. When the associated callback is called, it is called with a channel lock so care must be taken to ensure any processing is minimal to prevent DNS channel stalls.

The callback argument arg is copied from the ares_search argument arg. The callback argument status indicates whether the query sequence ended with a successful query and, if not, how the query sequence failed. It may have any of the following values:

ARES_SUCCESS
    A query completed successfully.

ARES_ENODATA
    No query completed successfully; when the query was tried without a search domain appended, a response was returned with no answers.

ARES_EFORMERR
    A query completed but the server claimed that the query was malformatted.

ARES_ESERVFAIL
    No query completed successfully; when the query was tried without a search domain appended, the server claimed to have experienced a failure. (This code can only occur if the ARES_FLAG_NOCHECKRESP flag was specified at channel initialization time; otherwise, such responses are ignored at the ares_send(3) level.)

ARES_ENOTFOUND
    No query completed successfully; when the query was tried without a search domain appended, the server reported that the queried-for domain name was not found.

ARES_ENOTIMP
    A query completed but the server does not implement the operation requested by the query. (This code can only occur if the ARES_FLAG_NOCHECKRESP flag was specified at channel initialization time; otherwise, such responses are ignored at the ares_send(3) level.)

ARES_EREFUSED
    A query completed but the server refused the query. (This code can only occur returned if the ARES_FLAG_NOCHECKRESP flag was specified at channel initialization time; otherwise, such responses are ignored at the ares_send(3) level.)

ARES_TIMEOUT
    No name servers responded to a query within the timeout period.

ARES_ECONNREFUSED
    No name servers could be contacted.

ARES_ENOMEM
    Memory was exhausted.

ARES_ECANCELLED
    The query was cancelled.

ARES_EDESTRUCTION
    The name service channel channel is being destroyed; the query will not be completed.

ARES_ENOSERVER
    No query completed successfully; no DNS servers were configured on the channel.

The callback argument timeouts reports how many times a query timed out during the execution of the given request.

If a query completed successfully, the callback argument abuf points to a result buffer of length alen. If the query did not complete successfully, abuf will usually be NULL and alen will usually be 0, but in some cases an unsuccessful query result may be placed in abuf.

SEE ALSO
ares_process(3), ares_dns_record(3)

AUTHOR
Greg Hudson, MIT Information Systems
Copyright 1998 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.