The ArpaName package provides full recursive TCP/IP name/address queries and caches results for increased performance and robustness. The Arpanet mail gateway is the primary client of this package, but it provides a general TCP/IP name and address lookup mechanism for any Cedar application.

See the ArpaName.mesa interface for more details. All lookup operations cause cache load if item is not already in the cache.

Arpanet name resolution behaviour is controlled by an resolv boolean. If resolv is TRUE, full recursive Arpanet name resolution will be performed locally (useful for external SMTP mail). The workstation running this code must then have Arpanet access in order to query various Arpanet name servers directly. If resolv is FALSE, queries will be performed via the local root name servers and the workstation running this code requires no direct Arpanet access (no external SMTP access is needed). Most lookup operations return reply status information as well as the address of the server which provided the authorititive reply.

The Arpanet name protocol is documented in RFCs 882, 883, 973, and 974. These can be found on /Indigo/RFC/RFC882.TXT, RFC883.TXT, RFC973.TXT, RFC974.TXT. An updated RFC on this protocol is due any time now so check /Indigo/RFC/RFC-INDEX.TXT first.