On Fri, Sep 27, 2002 at 02:58:05PM -0700, Jeremy C. Reed wrote:

> You mentioned that sometimes you had the problem. So since it worked
> sometimes, I was thinking your root hints is fine.
> 
> But since you use forwarders first, then it falls back to check for
> itself, I think your root hints is missing or corrupted.

this has happened to me a couple times with named 8.2.3 on my 1.4.x
system.  most recently was a couple days ago, in fact.

I have a theory that it gets worse when you have a really good
forwarder.  since you are seldom talking to the root nameservers, the
TTL for the root name servers expires.  then when your forwarder fails
and you _do_ need to talk to the root name servers, you don't know who
or where they are; hence the error message.

if I understand correctly, the root hints file is only consulted on
startup to prime the root zone -- once named is up and running, the file
is never again referenced.

I'm not sure of the correct solution.

-- 
  Aaron J. Grier | "Not your ordinary poofy goof." | agrier@poofygoof.com
    "i'm convinced that the cray cabinet has an outlet for plugging in
    welding attachments."  --  Skeezics Boondoggle, on the cray CS6400