can named service requests while reloading?

[John Hascall]

> My named does not service requests while reloading...It usually takes
> several minutes. Is this normal. We are using 8.2.2p5. Thanks.

    This is normal, and it sucks.

    What we did was modify how named starts.
    Our variant (and we've offered deltas to no avail)
    starts like this:

      (start)
         |
       [fork]------(child)
         |            |
         |         [Load DB]
         |            |
         |        _[sigSTOP]
       [exit] <__/    :
                      :
                      :
                   [sigCONT]
                      |
                [open sockets]
                      |
                   "ready"

    when the parent process exits, the startup script kills the
    previously running named (which has been happily answering
    requests overlapping the new process loading its DB) and
    then sigCONTs the child.

    As a result we have a very tiny downtime.

John