Hostname and DNS Client resolution order explanation required

when i setup a new virtual server i see the resolution order is:

files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4

i cant find any comprehensive documentation for this. please can you point me to documentation, or break down the above statement and explain options.

thanks

laurence

Where are you seeing this?

This looks like the /etc/nsswitch.conf file, which Webmin can configure in Network Configuration->Hostname and DNS Client. But, you are perhaps talking about virtual machines created in Cloudmin? (Virtualmin doesn’t care about this setting and doesn’t do anything with it.)