Subprocess puzzle and two questions

[Chris Angelico]

On Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 12:49 PM, Roy Smith <roy at panix.com> wrote:
> In article <mailman.3700.1352930072.27098.python-list at python.org>,
>  Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I'm slightly surprised that there's no way with the Python stdlib to
>> point a DNS query at a specific server
>
> Me too, including the "only slightly" part.  The normal high-level C
> resolver routines (getaddrinfo/getnameinfo, or even the old
> gethostbyname series), don't expose any way to do that.  You have to dig
> quite far down in the resolver library stack to get to the point where
> you can do that.  The concept of not knowing or caring which specific
> server has the data you need is quite deeply baked into the basic DNS
> architecture.

Indeed. But Python boasts that the batteries are included, and given
the wealth of other networking facilities that are available, it is a
bit of a hole that you can't run DNS queries in this way.

Mind you, if Python's managed to get this far without it being a major
stumbling-block, that probably means that it's not a serious lack. And
I don't think many people write DNS *servers* in Python. (Most people
don't write DNS servers at all, since BIND exists. But I did exactly
that this week, since it would be easier than most other options.)

ChrisA