Description Ryan Lowe 2004-01-21 22:22:29 EST

BUILD: Eclipse 3.0M6
PLATFORM: Windows XP

I was having a strange problem with DNS caching in Eclipse.  Here were the
circumstances:

In the CVS Repository Exploring perspective I created a new repository location,
connection type "extssh" or "pserver".  The location is in the form:

subdomain.dyndns.org

Subsequently the Internet IP address of this location changed (it is a home DSL
connection) and I expected Eclipse to properly DNS lookup the new IP but it
could not connect using the location subdomain.dyndns.org any more.  When I
expand HEAD in the CVS Repositories view nothing appears.

IMPORTANT: But after closing Eclipse and restarting it, the connection works again.

CLIENT AND SERVER SETUP
-----------------------

It will probably be useful if I explain how the machines are set up in order to
debug this problem.  The client and server are both on a local network behind a
home router with port forwarding set up.  The ports forwarded to the CVS server
are 80 (httpd), 22 (sshd) and 2401 (pserver).

The IP address of subdomain.dyndns.org is updated at regular intervals by a
machine on the local network.  This and port forwarding allows people from the
Internet to connect to the CVS machine from outside the router.

CVS server      192.168.1.101 (Linux)
Eclipse client  192.168.1.103 (Windows XP)
Router          external IP address

OTHER POINTS
------------

The reason why I suspect this is a DNS problem with Eclipse is the following:

1. If I make a new CVS repository at the local IP address (192.168.1.101) it
works properly,

2. If I make a new CVS repository at the current external IP address it
properly.  This is the address that subdomain.dyndns.org resolves to.

3. I can open http://subdomain.dyndns.org in Mozilla and Internet Explorer in
the same machine Eclipse is running on (Windows XP).  So Mozilla and IE are
resolving the subdomain.dyndns.org to the new IP address but Eclipse cannot connect.

4. If I make a new CVS repository at the location subdomain.dyndns.org and try
to expand HEAD nothing appears.  This is the same behaviour as the existing CVS
repository that existed for the location subdomain.dyndns.org before the IP change.

5. Restarting Eclipse fixes the problem and the old CVS repository for the
location subdomain.dyndns.org works again.

Wild-ass guess: Could it be possible that Eclipse resolves the domains in the
CVS list only once at startup for efficiency reasons and never checks them again?