# what are appropriate settings for /etc/nsswitch.conf and mdns?



## dch (Nov 6, 2016)

I've been using zeroconf for several years happily but I get continual log error messages from security/spiped:


```
2016-11-06T10:17:00.398940+00:00 wintermute spiped: NSSWITCH(_nsdispatch): mdns_minimal, hosts, getaddrinfo, not found, and no fallback provided
2016-11-06T10:17:19.095431+00:00 wintermute spiped: NSSWITCH(_nsdispatch): mdns_minimal, hosts, getaddrinfo, not found, and no fallback provided
...
```

Here's my current nsswitch.conf:


```
# nsswitch.conf(5) - name service switch configuration file
# $FreeBSD: releng/11.0/etc/nsswitch.conf 301711 2016-06-09 01:28:44Z markj $
#
group: files
hosts: files mdns_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns
networks: files
passwd: files
shells: files
services: files
protocols: files
rpc: files
```

If I use instead hosts: files dns mdns then the errors go away, but the original config should be valid according to http://0pointer.de/lennart/projects/nss-mdns/

The original reason for the more complex config is to ensure mdns is authoritative for .local addresses and to avoid forwarding unnecessary lookups to root servers.

Is the simpler setup non-polluting?


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## kpa (Nov 6, 2016)

Looks like security/spiped is the broken one here, the more complex set up is perfectly fine.

You can argue though that the operating system should have a programming API for this sort of stuff, forcing external programs to directly read and parse /etc configuration files is not proper at all.


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