Is there a way to flush the DNS cache from a C# WPF app? (on XP, Vista, Win7)
You can use a function from Microsoft's "dnsapi.dll". This will allow you to do this completely programmatically:
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
[DllImport("dnsapi.dll",EntryPoint="DnsFlushResolverCache")]
private static extern UInt32 DnsFlushResolverCache ();
public static void FlushMyCache() //This can be named whatever name you want and is the function you will call
{
UInt32 result = DnsFlushResolverCache();
}
I have tested this and it works great.
This may be the poor-man's solution, but you could use System.Diagnostics.Process
to launch ipconfig /flushdns
.
I searched on the internet and couldnt find away to flush a single dns entry. Working on something for failing over to backup datacenter this is needed for me. I dissembled the DnsFlushResolverCacheEntry_W and came up with the p/invoke sig below. I use the DnsQuery method with the QueryNoWireFlag and NoHostFile flag. If there are any results then I call DnsFlushResolverCacheEntry_W. This might be good info for someone in the future looking to do the same
/// <summary>
/// Removes all related DNS records for the given hostname from the DNS resolver cache.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="hostName">The host name to flush from the resolver cache.</param>
/// <returns>Returns 1 if successful, zero if failed. No other error information is returned.</returns>
/// <remarks>
/// DnsFlushResolverCacheEntry_W is an undocumented method. From dissembler this method has two possible
/// return values 0 or 1. If the argument is null or the _R_ResolverFlushCacheEntry returns something
/// other than zero than the return value is zero. When _R_ResolverFlushCacheEntry returns zero the
/// return value is 1. Based off this and testing of the method it is assumed that 1 is used to indicate success.
/// After calling this method querying the DNS resolver cache returns no results.
///
/// __stdcall DnsFlushResolverCacheEntry_W(x)
/// ....
/// 6DC12729 xor esi, esi // Zero esi
/// 6DC1272B cmp [ebp+arg_0], esi // check if the hostname is null
/// 6DC1272E jz loc_6DC1D8B8 // Jump to end, return value is 0.
/// 6DC12734 mov [ebp+ms_exc.registration.TryLevel], esi
/// 6DC12737 push esi // Push 3 args for method, 2nd is hostname, others null
/// 6DC12738 push [ebp+arg_0]
/// 6DC1273B push esi
/// 6DC1273C call _R_ResolverFlushCacheEntry@12 // call this method
/// 6DC12741 mov [ebp+var_1C], eax // store return value in local
/// 6DC12744 mov [ebp+ms_exc.registration.TryLevel], 0FFFFFFFEh
/// 6DC1274B
/// 6DC1274B loc_6DC1274B:
/// 6DC1274B cmp [ebp+var_1C], esi
/// 6DC1274E jnz loc_6DC1D8E7 // Error? jump to block that does etw then return 0
/// 6DC12754 xor eax, eax // Success? Set eax to zero
/// 6DC12756 inc eax // result is 0, increment by 1. success return value is 1
/// 6DC12757 call __SEH_epilog4
/// 6DC1275C retn 4
///
/// 6DC1D8B8 xor eax, eax // set return value to zero
/// 6DC1D8BA jmp loc_6DC12757 // jump to end
///
/// 6DC1D8E7 mov eax, _WPP_GLOBAL_Control
/// 6DC1D8EC cmp eax, offset _WPP_GLOBAL_Control
/// 6DC1D8F1 jz short loc_6DC1D8B8
/// 6DC1D8F3 test byte ptr [eax+1Ch], 40h
/// 6DC1D8F7 jz short loc_6DC1D8B8 // This is probably testing some flag that is used to indicate if ETW is enabled
/// 6DC1D8F9 push [ebp+var_1C]
/// 6DC1D8FC push offset dword_6DC22494
/// 6DC1D901 push 0Dh
/// 6DC1D903 push dword ptr [eax+14h]
/// 6DC1D906 push dword ptr [eax+10h]
/// 6DC1D909 call _WPP_SF_q@20 ; WPP_SF_q(x,x,x,x,x) // This method does some ETW tracing
/// 6DC1D90E jmp short loc_6DC1D8B8
/// </remarks>
[DllImport("dnsapi.dll", EntryPoint = "DnsFlushResolverCacheEntry_W", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
public static extern int DnsFlushResolverCacheEntry(string hostName);