For a long time I did not really care about DNS search suffixes. Suddenly, a few months ago, I realized that it would be nice if I could use the same URL (bookmarks, etc.) to reach my laptop, no matter which local network I am currently using.

I was aware that I can use resolv.conf(5) but editing your /etc/resolv.conf and using DHCP is often not a good idea because it might get overwritten. Fortunately most (open) router operation systems support dnsmasq which is capable of providing IP addresses and supporting local DNS resolution.

Anyway, sometimes adding a DNS search suffix only to your local computer is just what you need. In this case dhclient.conf(5) might become handy.

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append domain-search "example.com", "sales.example.com";

The line above adds two suffixes to the DNS resolution list so instead of ssh server.example.com one only need to type ssh server. The manual page for dhcp-options(5) lists other useful options with can be used to configure the DHCP client.

References:

• resolv.conf(5): manual page
• dhclient.conf(5): manual page
• dhcp-options(5): manual page