Perl DNS Resolver Module
========================

Copyright (c) 1997 Michael Fuhr.  All rights reserved.  This program is free
software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as
Perl itself. 

*** THIS VERSION OF Net::DNS IS FOR TESTING AND STILL CONTAINS BUGS ***

See the BUGS section.


DESCRIPTION
===========

Net::DNS is a Perl interface to the DNS resolver.  It allows the 
programmer to perform any type of DNS query.  For details, see the
Net::DNS manual page.

To read about the latest features, see the Changes file.  To see
what's planned for future versions, see the TODO file.

As of version 0.02, Net::DNS is written entirely in Perl.  Version 0.01
was written mostly in C and used the system's resolver.  The Perl version
runs quite a bit slower, but considering that the network can be a serious
bottleneck when making DNS queries, the speed difference may not really
matter in most cases.  However, future versions may contain some C for those
who wish to link against libresolv.

The author invites feedback on the module, particularly at this early
stage of its development.  If there's something you'd like to have added,
please let me know.


INSTALLATION
============

This version of Net::DNS uses IO::Socket, which is part of the
IO module available on CPAN.  You'll need to have IO installed
before using Net::DNS.

To build this module, run the following commands:

    perl Makefile.PL
    make
    make test
    make install


RUNNING TESTS
=============

There aren't many tests in this version.  Part of the problem is creating
a test suite to work on systems both with and without Internet connectivity.
Future versions of this module will have more tests but will probably
require some site-specific configuration before running them.


DEMONSTRATION SCRIPTS
=====================

There are a few demonstration scripts in the demo/ directory.  See
demo/README for more info.

The author would be happy to include any contributed scripts in future
versions of this module.  All I ask is that they be documented (preferably
using POD) and that the contributor's name and contact information be
mentioned somewhere.


BUGS
====

The module is still in its early stages and is sure to contain a few
bugs.  See the TODO and Changes files for more info.

If you find a bug, please report it to the author along with the
following information:

    * version of Perl
    * version of Net::DNS
    * version of IO
    * operating system type and version
    * version of nameserver (if known)

If I don't have access to a system similar to yours, I may ask you
to insert some debugging lines and report back on the results.  The
more help and information you can provide, the better.


AUTHOR
======

Michael Fuhr
mfuhr@dimensional.com
http://www.dimensional.com/~mfuhr/

$Id: README,v 1.4 1997/02/13 23:20:32 mfuhr Exp $