If gethostbyname fails it never recovers

I've been having problems with my ISP. One way it seems to manifest
itself is that I can not reach or contact my ISP's DNS servers. IOW a
simply nslookup google.com will fail.

So I tried writing a script that would monitor this. The script calls
gethostbyname for google.com every 15 minutes and logs the status. When
gethostbyname fails however it never comes back. My ISP and internet
connection may come back and nslookup at the command line will work
fine. But my script will report failure at the next and following 15
minute intervals. This is very unexpected. What am I doing wrong and is
there a way to "reset" things so that it will start working again.

Here's a snippet:

sub CheckDNS {
my $host = shift;

my @ipaddrs = gethostbyname $host;
my $status = $?;

if ($status ne 0 and $debug) {
debug "Host: $host ($status)";
} # if

return $status
} # CheckDNS

CheckDNS is called every 15 minutes with "google.com" as a parm. When a
failure happens $status = 2 and remains = 2 forever.

--

Andrew DeFaria <http://defaria.com>
Dain bramaged.

re: If gethostbyname fails it never recovers

>>>>"Andrew" == Andrew DeFaria <Andrew@DeFaria.comwrites:

AndrewSo I tried writing a script that would monitor this. The script calls
Andrewgethostbyname for google.com every 15 minutes and logs the status. When
Andrewgethostbyname fails however it never comes back. My ISP and internet
Andrewconnection may come back and nslookup at the command line will work fine. But
Andrewmy script will report failure at the next and following 15 minute
Andrewintervals. This is very unexpected. What am I doing wrong and is there a way
Andrewto "reset" things so that it will start working again.

AndrewHere's a snippet:

Andrewsub CheckDNS {
Andrew my $host = shift;

Andrew my @ipaddrs = gethostbyname $host;
Andrew my $status = $?;

Andrew if ($status ne 0 and $debug) {
Andrew debug "Host: $host ($status)";
Andrew } # if

Andrew return $status
Andrew} # CheckDNS

AndrewCheckDNS is called every 15 minutes with "google.com" as a parm. When a
Andrewfailure happens $status = 2 and remains = 2 forever.

$? is not set for a gethostbyname failure. In fact, I'm not sure
anything is actually set.

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re: If gethostbyname fails it never recovers

Randal L. Schwartz wrote:Actually, at least on my system... it is! If I change $host = "bogus"
gethostbyname sets $? to 1. Try it!Thanks. I had no idea. I will post there...

--

Andrew DeFaria <http://defaria.com>
I got a new shadow. I had to get rid of the other one -- it wasn't doing
what I was doing.