ares_init_options.3

.\"
.\" Copyright 1998 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
.\" Copyright (C) 2004-2010 by Daniel Stenberg
.\"
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.\"
.TH ARES_INIT 3 "5 March 2010"
.SH NAME
ares_init_options \- Initialize a resolver channel
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
#include <ares.h>

struct ares_options {
  int flags;
  int timeout; /* in seconds or milliseconds, depending on options */
  int tries;
  int ndots;
  unsigned short udp_port;
  unsigned short tcp_port;
  int socket_send_buffer_size;
  int socket_receive_buffer_size;
  struct in_addr *servers;
  int nservers;
  char **domains;
  int ndomains;
  char *lookups;
  ares_sock_state_cb sock_state_cb;
  void *sock_state_cb_data;
  struct apattern *sortlist;
  int nsort;
  int ednspsz;
  char *resolvconf_path;
};

int ares_init_options(ares_channel *\fIchannelptr\fP,
                      struct ares_options *\fIoptions\fP,
                      int \fIoptmask\fP)
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
The \fBares_init_options(3)\fP function initializes a communications channel
for name service lookups.  If it returns successfully,
\fBares_init_options(3)\fP will set the variable pointed to by
\fIchannelptr\fP to a handle used to identify the name service channel.  The
caller should invoke \fIares_destroy(3)\fP on the handle when the channel is
no longer needed.

The \fIoptmask\fP parameter generally specifies which fields in the structure pointed to
by \fIoptions\fP are set, as follows:
.TP 18
.B ARES_OPT_FLAGS
.B int \fIflags\fP;
.br
Flags controlling the behavior of the resolver.  See below for a
description of possible flag values.
.TP 18
.B ARES_OPT_TIMEOUT
.B int \fItimeout\fP;
.br
The number of seconds each name server is given to respond to a query on the
first try.  (After the first try, the timeout algorithm becomes more
complicated, but scales linearly with the value of \fItimeout\fP.)  The
default is five seconds. This option is being deprecated by
\fIARES_OPT_TIMEOUTMS\fP starting in c-ares 1.5.2.
.TP 18
.B ARES_OPT_TIMEOUTMS
.B int \fItimeout\fP;
.br
The number of milliseconds each name server is given to respond to a query on
the first try.  (After the first try, the timeout algorithm becomes more
complicated, but scales linearly with the value of \fItimeout\fP.)  The
default is five seconds. Note that this option is specified with the same
struct field as the former \fIARES_OPT_TIMEOUT\fP, it is but the option bits
that tell c-ares how to interpret the number. This option was added in c-ares
1.5.2.
.TP 18
.B ARES_OPT_TRIES
.B int \fItries\fP;
.br
The number of tries the resolver will try contacting each name server
before giving up.  The default is four tries.
.TP 18
.B ARES_OPT_NDOTS
.B int \fIndots\fP;
.br
The number of dots which must be present in a domain name for it to be
queried for "as is" prior to querying for it with the default domain
extensions appended.  The default value is 1 unless set otherwise by
resolv.conf or the RES_OPTIONS environment variable.
.TP 18
.B ARES_OPT_UDP_PORT
.B unsigned short \fIudp_port\fP;
.br
The port to use for queries over UDP, in network byte order.
The default value is 53 (in network byte order), the standard name
service port.
.TP 18
.B ARES_OPT_TCP_PORT
.B unsigned short \fItcp_port\fP;
.br
The port to use for queries over TCP, in network byte order.
The default value is 53 (in network byte order), the standard name
service port.
.TP 18
.B ARES_OPT_SERVERS
.B struct in_addr *\fIservers\fP;
.br
.B int \fInservers\fP;
.br
The list of IPv4 servers to contact, instead of the servers specified in
resolv.conf or the local named. In order to allow specification of either
IPv4 or IPv6 name servers, the
.BR ares_set_servers(3)
function must be used instead.
.TP 18
.B ARES_OPT_DOMAINS
.B char **\fIdomains\fP;
.br
.B int \fIndomains\fP;
.br
The domains to search, instead of the domains specified in resolv.conf
or the domain derived from the kernel hostname variable.
.TP 18
.B ARES_OPT_LOOKUPS
.B char *\fIlookups\fP;
.br
The lookups to perform for host queries.
.I lookups
should be set to a string of the characters "b" or "f", where "b"
indicates a DNS lookup and "f" indicates a lookup in the hosts file.
.TP 18
.B ARES_OPT_SOCK_STATE_CB
.B void (*\fIsock_state_cb\fP)(void *data, ares_socket_t socket_fd, int readable, int writable);
.br
.B void *\fIsock_state_cb_data\fP;
.br
A callback function to be invoked when a socket changes state.
.I socket_fd
will be passed the socket whose state has changed;
.I readable
will be set to true if the socket should listen for read events, and
.I writable
will be set to true if the socket should listen for write events.
The value of
.I sock_state_cb_data
will be passed as the
.I data
argument.
.TP 18
.B ARES_OPT_SORTLIST
.B struct apattern *\fIsortlist\fP;
.br
.B int \fInsort\fP;
.br
A list of IP address ranges that specifies the order of preference that
results from \fIares_gethostbyname\fP should be returned in.  Note that
this can only be used with a sortlist retrieved via
\fBares_save_options(3)\fP (because
.B struct apattern
is opaque); to set a fresh sort list, use \fBares_set_sortlist(3)\fP.
.TP 18
.B ARES_OPT_SOCK_SNDBUF
.B int \fIsocket_send_buffer_size\fP;
.br
The send buffer size to set for the socket.
.TP 18
.B ARES_OPT_SOCK_RCVBUF
.B int \fIsocket_receive_buffer_size\fP;
.br
The receive buffer size to set for the socket.
.TP 18
.B ARES_OPT_EDNSPSZ
.B int \fIednspsz\fP;
.br
.TP 18
.B ARES_OPT_RESOLVCONF
.B char *\fIresolvconf_path\fP;
The path to use for reading the resolv.conf file. The
.I resolvconf_path
should be set to a path string, and will be honoured on *nix like systems. The
default is
.B /etc/resolv.conf
.br
The message size to be advertized in EDNS; only takes effect if the
.B ARES_FLAG_EDNS
flag is set.
.br
.PP
The \fIoptmask\fP parameter also includes options without a corresponding
field in the
.B ares_options
structure, as follows:
.TP 23
.B ARES_OPT_ROTATE
Perform round-robin selection of the nameservers configured for the channel
for each resolution.
.TP 23
.B ARES_OPT_NOROTATE
Do not perform round-robin nameserver selection; always use the list of
nameservers in the same order.
.PP
The
.I flags
field should be the bitwise or of some subset of the following values:
.TP 23
.B ARES_FLAG_USEVC
Always use TCP queries (the "virtual circuit") instead of UDP
queries.  Normally, TCP is only used if a UDP query yields a truncated
result.
.TP 23
.B ARES_FLAG_PRIMARY
Only query the first server in the list of servers to query.
.TP 23
.B ARES_FLAG_IGNTC
If a truncated response to a UDP query is received, do not fall back
to TCP; simply continue on with the truncated response.
.TP 23
.B ARES_FLAG_NORECURSE
Do not set the "recursion desired" bit on outgoing queries, so that the name
server being contacted will not try to fetch the answer from other servers if
it doesn't know the answer locally. Be aware that ares will not do the
recursion for you.  Recursion must be handled by the application calling ares
if \fIARES_FLAG_NORECURSE\fP is set.
.TP 23
.B ARES_FLAG_STAYOPEN
Do not close communications sockets when the number of active queries
drops to zero.
.TP 23
.B ARES_FLAG_NOSEARCH
Do not use the default search domains; only query hostnames as-is or
as aliases.
.TP 23
.B ARES_FLAG_NOALIASES
Do not honor the HOSTALIASES environment variable, which normally
specifies a file of hostname translations.
.TP 23
.B ARES_FLAG_NOCHECKRESP
Do not discard responses with the SERVFAIL, NOTIMP, or REFUSED
response code or responses whose questions don't match the questions
in the request.  Primarily useful for writing clients which might be
used to test or debug name servers.
.TP 23
.B ARES_FLAG_EDNS
Include an EDNS pseudo-resource record (RFC 2671) in generated requests.
.SH RETURN VALUES
\fBares_init_options(3)\fP can return any of the following values:
.TP 14
.B ARES_SUCCESS
Initialization succeeded.
.TP 14
.B ARES_EFILE
A configuration file could not be read.
.TP 14
.B ARES_ENOMEM
The process's available memory was exhausted.
.TP 14
.B ARES_ENOTINITIALIZED
c-ares library initialization not yet performed.
.SH NOTES
When initializing from
.B /etc/resolv.conf,
(or, alternatively when specified by the
.I resolvconf_path
path location)
\fBares_init_options(3)\fP reads the \fIdomain\fP and \fIsearch\fP directives
to allow lookups of short names relative to the domains specified. The
\fIdomain\fP and \fIsearch\fP directives override one another. If more that
one instance of either \fIdomain\fP or \fIsearch\fP directives is specified,
the last occurrence wins. For more information, please see the
.BR resolv.conf (5)
manual page.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR ares_init(3),
.BR ares_destroy(3),
.BR ares_dup(3),
.BR ares_library_init(3),
.BR ares_save_options(3),
.BR ares_set_servers(3),
.BR ares_set_sortlist(3)
.SH AUTHOR
Greg Hudson, MIT Information Systems
.br
Copyright 1998 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
.br
Copyright (C) 2004-2010 by Daniel Stenberg.