[erlang-questions] how to debug inet_res?

[Benoit Chesneau]

On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 5:17 PM, Raimo Niskanen
<raimo+erlang-questions@REDACTED> wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 04:28:17PM +0100, Benoit Chesneau wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I am using a custom version of Erlang on iOS and for some reasons I
>> ignore yet the DNS resolution is failing in some networks. Since you
>> can't launch ports on iOS due to the sandboxing, Erlang is using the
>> module inet_res to do the resolution. Which works well on some network
>> but return {error, nxdomain} in an office at Singapore.
>>
>> Testing the same domain name on desktop with native or inet_res return
>> the IP address correctly. For now I have written a small nif to do the
>> gethostbyname call but I'm still curious to know why it fails on IOS.
>> not sure which kind of test I should do. Any idea?
>
> inet_res is the DNS resolver client written in Erlang. It does not call
> gethostbyname. The module inet_gethost_native uses an external port
> program to call gethostbyname.
>
> For inet_res, first try this:
>     rr(inet_res).
>     inet_res:resolve("google.com", in, a).
>
> If that does not work; I first suggest you call inet_db:get_rc() to get a
> summary of what settings are used (on both machines) and compare.

I did that this is why i'm speaking about inet_res.

On ios: {file, dns} where the desktop has native. To compare both
machine I did a test using `inet_res:gethostbyname/1` and
`inet_hosts:gethostbyname/1`  on the same network (wifi).

in each case inet_hosts weren't working (desktop is on the mac),
strangely it returns {error, nxdomain} on the desktop and {error,
timeout} on ios. inet_res resolution is working on the desktop and not
on iOS.

>
> Then you can look at the internal ETS table ets:i(inet_db) and compare them
> on both machines.
>
> To use a specific nameserver:
>     inet_res:resolve("google.com", in, a, [{nameservers,[{{8,8,8,8},53}]}]).
>
> That looks up Googles address at Googles public nameserver 8.8.8.8.
> It does not work for me since I am behind a company firewall that does not
> allow outgoing DNS queries. I have to use a local nameserver. That local
> nameserver should be found in the ets table inet_db which should show in
> the inet_db:get_rc() output. If so e.g inet_res:gethostbyname("google.com")
> will produce a hostent record.
>
> Note. There is some magic in play indicated by an automatic default entry
> {resolv_conf,"/etc/resolv.conf"} in the inet_db:get_rc() output. That causes
> inet_res to update inet_db with content from /etc/resolv.conf before doing
> a DNS query.
>
> So do an inet_res call first; then if it does not work check the internal
> tables. Compare the tables before and after the first call.


Thanks will try that.
>
> You can also add an argument 'verbose' to the argument 4 option list of
> inet_res:resolve/4 that will show which servers are tried and what they
> reply / timeout.
>

I didn't know about the verbose option, will try it as well. I will
update the thread with my results here.

- benoît