In standard routing, astatic routeis typically considered valid only if the specified next-hop IP address is directly reachable on a local subnet. However, in complex service provider designs, the next-hop might be a "distant" IP address that is reachable through another route (such as a BGP route or another static route). This process of looking up a next-hop within another routing entry is calledrecursive lookup.
In Junos OS, theresolve (Option A)parameter is explicitly used to enable this behavior for static routes. According to Juniper technical documentation, when you append the resolve keyword to a static route configuration, you are instructing the Routing Engine to search the routing table to find a path to that distant next-hop.
For example:
set routing-options static route 10.1.1.0/24 next-hop 192.168.100.1 resolve
If 192.168.100.1 is not on a local interface but is reachable via an OSPF route, the router will "resolve" the path and install the 10.1.1.0/24 route into the forwarding table using the OSPF path's exit interface.
Why other options are incorrect:
Discard (Option B)andReject (Option C)are "next-hop types" used to drop traffic, either silently (discard) or by sending an ICMP unreachable message (reject).
Next-table (Option D)is used forInter-VRF routing, where the router is told to look up the destination in a completely different routing instance (like a VRF table), which is a different architectural function than a recursive next-hop lookup within the same table.
