+.new
+.section "Detailed information from merged DNS lists" "SECTmordetinf"
+.cindex "DNS list" "information from merged"
+When the facility for restricting the matching IP values in a DNS list is used,
+the text from the TXT record that is set in &$dnslist_text$& may not reflect
+the true reason for rejection. This happens when lists are merged and the IP
+address in the A record is used to distinguish them; unfortunately there is
+only one TXT record. One way round this is not to use merged lists, but that
+can be inefficient because it requires multiple DNS lookups where one would do
+in the vast majority of cases when the host of interest is not on any of the
+lists.
+
+A less inefficient way of solving this problem is available. If
+two domain names, comma-separated, are given, the second is used first to
+do an initial check, making use of any IP value restrictions that are set.
+If there is a match, the first domain is used, without any IP value
+restrictions, to get the TXT record. As a byproduct of this, there is also
+a check that the IP being tested is indeed on the first list. The first
+domain is the one that is put in &$dnslist_domain$&. For example:
+.code
+reject message = \
+ rejected because $sender_ip_address is blacklisted \
+ at $dnslist_domain\n$dnslist_text
+ dnslists = \
+ sbl.spamhaus.org,sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org=127.0.0.2 : \
+ dul.dnsbl.sorbs.net,dnsbl.sorbs.net=127.0.0.10
+.endd
+For the first blacklist item, this starts by doing a lookup in
+&'sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org'& and testing for a 127.0.0.2 return. If there is a
+match, it then looks in &'sbl.spamhaus.org'&, without checking the return
+value, and as long as something is found, it looks for the corresponding TXT
+record. If there is no match in &'sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org'&, nothing more is done.
+The second blacklist item is processed similarly.
+
+If you are interested in more than one merged list, the same list must be
+given several times, but because the results of the DNS lookups are cached,
+the DNS calls themselves are not repeated. For example:
+.code
+reject dnslists = \
+ http.dnsbl.sorbs.net,dnsbl.sorbs.net=127.0.0.2 : \
+ socks.dnsbl.sorbs.net,dnsbl.sorbs.net=127.0.0.3 : \
+ misc.dnsbl.sorbs.net,dnsbl.sorbs.net=127.0.0.4 : \
+ dul.dnsbl.sorbs.net,dnsbl.sorbs.net=127.0.0.10
+.endd
+In this case there is one lookup in &'dnsbl.sorbs.net'&, and if none of the IP
+values matches (or if no record is found), this is the only lookup that is
+done. Only if there is a match is one of the more specific lists consulted.
+.wen
+