How do I get resolvconf to regenerate resolv.conf after I change /etc/network/interfaces?

Question

After updating /etc/network/interfaces with something very similar to below, how do I get /etc/resolv.conf to update? I tried (as root) resolver -u, service networking restart but they didn't work. I also fixed the symlink for resolv.conf and tried resolver -u again. Finally in frustration I rebooted, which did fix the problem by rebuilding /etc/resolv.conf.

Ubuntu 12.04, 64bit server, all the latest patches installed.

Example /etc/network/interfaces:

iface eth0 inet static
    address 192.168.3.3
    netmask 255.255.255.0
    gateway 192.168.3.1
    dns-search example.com
    dns-nameservers 192.168.3.45 192.168.8.10

jdthood · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-29T14:01:57.583

service networking restart is not always a reliable way of down-upping all interfaces.

The resolvconf -u command only updates resolv.conf from resolvconf's own database. You need to update the database.

To update the database you have to call resolvconf with the -a or -d option. That happens behind the scenes when you run ifup or ifdown. So, normally, as with any other change to /etc/network/interfaces, to activate changes to the dns-* options you have to ifdown the interface in question and ifup it again. Or you can reboot.

If you want to make changes to an interface without ifdownupping it (perhaps because you are administering the machine remotely and happen to be connected via that interface, natch) then you can achieve the same result by running resolvconf directly from the command line. This requires a bit more knowledge of resolvconf's semantics. Assume the relevant /e/n/i stanza is

iface IIII FFFF static
    address ...
    ...
    dns-nameservers X.X.X.X Y.Y.Y.Y
    dns-search SSSS

where FFFF is an address family ("inet" or "inet6").

To activate these dns-* options you run resolvconf as follows (yes, with newlines in the string piped to resolvconf).

echo "nameserver X.X.X.X
nameserver Y.Y.Y.Y
search SSSS" | sudo resolvconf -a IIII.FFFF

For the stanza given in the question this would be the following.

echo "nameserver 192.168.3.45
nameserver 192.168.8.10
search example.com" | sudo resolvconf -a eth0.inet

Consult the resolvconf(8) manual page and the resolvconf package README file (/usr/share/doc/resolvconf/README.gz) for more information.

score 33 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 10 '14 at 23:05

33

Although the manpage isn't installed by default it's documented via the update scripts option, just run:

sudo resolvconf -u

edited Apr 10 '14 at 23:05

Eric Carvalho

55,453

answered Apr 10 '14 at 21:32

user267617

347

score 9 · Answer 3 · edited Jan 23 '15 at 23:18

For those of you managing your servers remotely you can:

update the dns-nameservers line in /etc/network/interfaces
# ifdown eth01; ifup eth01

Notice that this has to be on one line divided with ; (the linux command line separator). You should not even lose your current connection. The exception is making a typo in the interfaces file. If this happens ifup will fail and you will have to have physical access or another ethxx connection.

score 4 · Answer 4 · edited Feb 11 '16 at 10:32

4

service resolvconf restart will regenerate /etc/resolv.conf file without much fuss.

edited Feb 11 '16 at 10:32

Eric Carvalho

55,453

answered Feb 10 '16 at 14:03

Kamran

41

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered May 02 '17 at 23:14

3

Simple answer :

Just install resolvconf. apt install resolvconf

After that, ifup eth0 updates the dns in etc/resolv.conf, according to the dns-nameservers line in /etc/network/interfaces.

answered May 02 '17 at 23:14

trogne

174

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered May 09 '18 at 11:49

On 18.04, the following works reliably (run as root):

systemctl stop networking
ip address flush dev <device> # just to be safe
systemctl start networking

Important: Make sure you have package resolvconf installed.
It doesn't seem to be by default, and without it some (!) changes from /etc/network/interfaces are silently ignored (e.g. dns-*).

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered May 23 '19 at 15:53

1

On desktop version of Ubuntu 18.04, where there's no service networking, and resolvconf isn't installed by default, I've succeeded in regenerating resolv.conf by restarting network-manager:

sudo service network-manager restart

answered May 23 '19 at 15:53

Ruslan

1,863

score 1 · Answer 8 · edited Jun 22 '15 at 21:44

This answer is similar to the one above but uses the questions example configuration to answer the question. Plus this explains why both commands are necessary.

Edit /etc/network/interfaces:

iface eth0 inet static
    address 192.168.3.3
    netmask 255.255.255.0
    gateway 192.168.3.1
    dns-search example.com
    dns-nameserver 192.168.3.45
    dns-nameserver 192.168.8.10

These changes will not take place unless you reboot or reload the configuration file:

In order to update the interfaces file live it is necessary to run the following command:

echo "nameserver 192.168.3.45
nameserver 192.168.8.10
search example.com" | sudo resolvconf -a eth0.inet

This allows an update to the interface without a reboot or reloading.

However, the above command changes will be lost after a reboot if the changes in the /etc/network/interfaces are not made.

By the way the last answer from BDenis in this list actually works in place of the last command by parsing the /etc/network/interfaces file and piping those lines into the command sudo resolvconf -a eth0 It's actually half the answer and a really good example of inline sed parsing. If you want to see how it does this just run the first part of the command and watch it parse the /etc/network/interfaces file and spit out all the necessary information you need to run the sudo resolvconf -a eth0 command:

sed 's/#.*$//' /etc/network/interfaces | grep dns- | sed 's/dns-//g'

Notice this would produce the same out put as the command:

echo "nameserver 192.168.3.45
nameserver 192.168.8.10
search example.com"

Provided that the /etc/network/interfaces file is configured with this information:

iface eth0 inet static
    address 192.168.3.3
    netmask 255.255.255.0
    gateway 192.168.3.1
    dns-search example.com
    dns-nameserver 192.168.3.45 
    dns-nameserver 192.168.8.10

score 0 · Answer 9 · edited Feb 19 '22 at 09:54

0

I discovered that if I got rid of the [network] and generateResolvConf = false from /etc/wsl.conf, shutdown, and restarted, then /etc/resolv.conf regenerated without having to do all the reinstall stuff.

edited Feb 19 '22 at 09:54

ChanganAuto

1
8
15
23

answered Feb 17 '22 at 04:41

Sean

1

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Jun 10 '22 at 03:30

My config files were perfect. I restarted all the necessary services. I told resolveconf to update.

None of this dynamically updated my resolve.conf and gave me access to my local domain's name servers until I performed a "sudo reboot".

On boot up, resolv.conf was updated and I could ping and get access to a domain name on my manually added dns-nameserver.

score 0 · Answer 11 · edited Mar 29 '23 at 19:57

0

Edit:

nano /etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/head
nameserver 1.1.1.1
nameserver 1.0.0.1

or if that doesn't work, do this instead:

nano /etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/tail
nameserver 1.1.1.1
nameserver 1.0.0.1

edited Mar 29 '23 at 19:57

Phillip -Zyan K Lee- Stockmann

2,393

answered Mar 26 '23 at 02:30

Abdias Rivera Bautista

1

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Sep 07 '17 at 23:21

0

This worked for me:

sed -re '/nameservers|dns-search/ !d' -e 's/dns-nameservers/nameserver/' -e 's/dns-search/search/' /etc/network/interfaces  | resolvconf -a eth0.inet && resolvconf -u

Adjust accordingly.

answered Sep 07 '17 at 23:21

jbgeek

1

score -3 · Answer 13 · edited Oct 09 '14 at 13:07

-3

Also you can try this command:

cat /etc/network/interfaces |sed 's/#.*$//'|grep dns-|sed 's/dns-//g'|sudo resolvconf -a eth0.inet

edited Oct 09 '14 at 13:07

αғsнιη

36,350

answered Oct 09 '14 at 13:07

BDenis

1

How do I get resolvconf to regenerate resolv.conf after I change /etc/network/interfaces?

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