0View source    /~bencollver/log/2024-12-17-no-dns-no-problem/index.txt tilde.pink      70
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i# 2024-12-17 - No DNS, No Problem      Err     tilde.pink      70
i       Err     tilde.pink      70
iThe early Internet used /etc/hosts files to resolve names.  These      Err     tilde.pink      70
iwere distributed on FTP sites.  You can see a 1992 example below.      Err     tilde.pink      70
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0host.txt from textfiles.com    /text/internet/hosts.txt        quix.us 70
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iThe /etc/hosts file quickly grew too large to be manageable.   Err     tilde.pink      70
iSee historical document below. Err     tilde.pink      70
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0hosts.hst from textfiles.com   /text/internet/hosts.hst        quix.us 70
i       Err     tilde.pink      70
iInternet users switched to DNS.        Err     tilde.pink      70
i       Err     tilde.pink      70
iRecently, for various reasons, i became interested in avoiding DNS,    Err     tilde.pink      70
iso i researched using an /etc/hosts file. I found one on       Err     tilde.pink      70
igopher.quest, but unfortunately it is incomplete.      Err     tilde.pink      70
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1hosts.txt at gopher.quest      /gopher-map-data        gopher.quest    70
i       Err     tilde.pink      70
iI noticed that the Quarry gopher search engine contains a little over  Err     tilde.pink      70
i300 live gopher hosts.  I wrote the author about it, and he generously Err     tilde.pink      70
icreated an /etc/hosts file from the Quarry database, linked below.     Err     tilde.pink      70
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0hosts.txt at gopher.icu        /files/hosts.txt        gopher.icu      70
i       Err     tilde.pink      70
iThis is updated daily.  On a linux system, you could replace   Err     tilde.pink      70
i/etc/hosts with this file and assuming a sane C library, it should     Err     tilde.pink      70
i"just work."  It will resolve those names without DNS. Err     tilde.pink      70
i       Err     tilde.pink      70
iFreeDOS is slightly more complicated. Suppose the file is in   Err     tilde.pink      70
iC:/etc/hosts.txt and will be used by mTCP and WATTCP.  Err     tilde.pink      70
i       Err     tilde.pink      70
iFor mTCP, edit mtcp.cfg, add:  Err     tilde.pink      70
i       Err     tilde.pink      70
i    HOSTSFILE C:/etc/hosts.txt Err     tilde.pink      70
i       Err     tilde.pink      70
iFor WATTCP, edit wattcp.cfg, add:      Err     tilde.pink      70
i       Err     tilde.pink      70
i    hosts = C:/etc/hosts.txt   Err     tilde.pink      70
i       Err     tilde.pink      70
iNow FreeDOS programs should resolve those names without DNS.   Err     tilde.pink      70
i       Err     tilde.pink      70
iThis covers gopher hosts.  I would also like to include FTP and web    Err     tilde.pink      70
ihosts referenced by my gopher maps. Below is a script i wrote to       Err     tilde.pink      70
imirror gopher content. Err     tilde.pink      70
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0gopher-get.tcl /~bencollver/files/gopher/scripts/gopher-get.tcl        tilde.pink      70
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9tclcurl.tgz SlackBuild /~bencollver/files/tclcurl.tgz  tilde.pink      70
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iUsing this script, i mirrored my gopher content.       Err     tilde.pink      70
i       Err     tilde.pink      70
i    $ mkdir gopherhole Err     tilde.pink      70
i    $ cd gopherhole    Err     tilde.pink      70
i    $ tclsh gopher-get.tcl --binary-skip --images-skip      \  Err     tilde.pink      70
i        --ignore gopher://tilde.pink/1/~bencollver/dir      \  Err     tilde.pink      70
i        --ignore gopher://tilde.pink/1/~bencollver/dict     \  Err     tilde.pink      70
i        --ignore gopher://tilde.pink/1/~bencollver/gamefaqs \  Err     tilde.pink      70
i        --ignore gopher://tilde.pink/1/~bencollver/ia       \  Err     tilde.pink      70
i        --ignore gopher://tilde.pink/1/~bencollver/recipes  \  Err     tilde.pink      70
i        gopher://tilde.pink/1/~bencollver      Err     tilde.pink      70
i       Err     tilde.pink      70
iThis took a while, so i let it run and came back later. This created   Err     tilde.pink      70
itwo directories.       Err     tilde.pink      70
i       Err     tilde.pink      70
i* tilde.pink/0 (Plain text documents)  Err     tilde.pink      70
i* tilde.pink/1 (Gopher maps)   Err     tilde.pink      70
i       Err     tilde.pink      70
iI scraped the host names from these directories as follows.    Err     tilde.pink      70
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i    $ find tilde.pink/1 -type f -exec \        Err     tilde.pink      70
i        grep -e URL:ftp: -e URL:http: -e URL:https: {} \; |\   Err     tilde.pink      70
i        sed -e 's,.*URL:[^:]*://,,' -e 's,/.*,,' >names-gopher.txt     Err     tilde.pink      70
i    $ find tilde.pink/0 -type f -exec \        Err     tilde.pink      70
i        awk -f setext-scrape-links.awk {} \; >names-setext.txt Err     tilde.pink      70
i    $ cat names-gopher.txt names-setext.txt | sort |\  Err     tilde.pink      70
i        uniq >names-extra.txt  Err     tilde.pink      70
i    $ wc -l names-extra.txt    Err     tilde.pink      70
i    392 names-extra.txt        Err     tilde.pink      70
i       Err     tilde.pink      70
0setext-scrape-links.awk        /~bencollver/log/2024-12-17-no-dns-no-problem/setext-scrape-links.awk   tilde.pink      70
i       Err     tilde.pink      70
iThis shows that i reference approximately 400 non-gopher names. Now i  Err     tilde.pink      70
iwould like to resolve these to IP addresses. I wrote a short AWK       Err     tilde.pink      70
iscript to do this.  I ignored unkown names because of old documents    Err     tilde.pink      70
ithat reference defunct names.  Err     tilde.pink      70
i       Err     tilde.pink      70
i    $ awk -f resolve.awk names-extra.txt >hosts-extra.txt      Err     tilde.pink      70
i    $ wc -l hosts-extra.txt    Err     tilde.pink      70
i    612 hosts-extra.txt        Err     tilde.pink      70
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0resolve.awk    /~bencollver/log/2024-12-17-no-dns-no-problem/resolve.awk       tilde.pink      70
i       Err     tilde.pink      70
iBecause DNS can resolve a name to multiple IP addresses, this list     Err     tilde.pink      70
igrew from 392 to 612 lines.  I appended this list to the Quarry hosts  Err     tilde.pink      70
ifile like so.  Err     tilde.pink      70
i       Err     tilde.pink      70
i    $ curl -o hosts-icu.txt gopher://gopher.icu/0/files/hosts.txt      Err     tilde.pink      70
i    $ cat hosts-icu.txt hosts-extra.txt >hosts-all.txt Err     tilde.pink      70
i    $ wc -l hosts-all.txt      Err     tilde.pink      70
i    1058       Err     tilde.pink      70
i       Err     tilde.pink      70
iFor FreeDOS, filter out ":" to exclude IPv6 addresses.  Also, mTCP     Err     tilde.pink      70
ihas an 80 character line length limit including EOL characters.        Err     tilde.pink      70
i       Err     tilde.pink      70
i    $ grep -v : hosts-all.txt |\       Err     tilde.pink      70
i        awk 'length($0) < 78 {print}' >hosts-dos.txt   Err     tilde.pink      70
i       Err     tilde.pink      70
iNow i can copy hosts-all.txt to /etc/hosts     Err     tilde.pink      70
ior copy hosts-dos.txt to C:/etc/hosts.txt      Err     tilde.pink      70
iand i am good to go.   Err     tilde.pink      70
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ip.s.   Err     tilde.pink      70
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iThe FreeDOS bundled mTCP has a bug. If you specify HOSTSFILE but no    Err     tilde.pink      70
iNAMESERVER, then name resolution will always fail.  You can work       Err     tilde.pink      70
iaround this by making sure mtcp.cfg has a NAMESERVER line. If you      Err     tilde.pink      70
idon't use DNS at all, it can be:       Err     tilde.pink      70
i       Err     tilde.pink      70
i    NAMESERVER 127.0.0.1       Err     tilde.pink      70
i       Err     tilde.pink      70
itags: bencollver,retrocomputing,technical,unix Err     tilde.pink      70
i       Err     tilde.pink      70
i# Tags Err     tilde.pink      70
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1bencollver     /~bencollver/log/tag/bencollver/        tilde.pink      70
1retrocomputing /~bencollver/log/tag/retrocomputing/    tilde.pink      70
1technical      /~bencollver/log/tag/technical/ tilde.pink      70
1unix   /~bencollver/log/tag/unix/      tilde.pink      70

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