DNS, root.hints, argh!

[kent at songbird.com]

On Thu, Nov 27, 2008 at 03:14:57PM -0600, mark wrote:
> >> What's wrong?
> > 
> > Exactly what it says.  The root.hints file is not a zone file.  Though there
> > format similarities, a zone file requires an SOA record, and the hints file 
> > doesn't have one.
> <snip>
> Oh - so named-checkzone is *not* the correct script to use to check if I've got
> root.hints correct? Is there something else, or just what I pull from internic?

I don't know of any script to check the hints file.  It's not authoritative
for anything -- it's just a way for "named" to find a server that answers
authoritatively for the root zone.  It's supposed to be very resilient.  The
theory is that the hints file could be many years out of date, and named
could still find a functioning root server.  In theory, I suppose, every
entry but one could fail, and named would still find the root servers.  named
ignores the hints file after it finds a root server. 

The only reason one would ever mess with the hints file would be if one
wanted named to use a completely different set of root servers.  If that's
the case, then there are many more complexities to worry about. 

Kent