Problem with hint file?

[Jim Reid]

>>>>> "Andrew" == andlil  <andlil at towerrecords.com> writes:

    Andrew> The issue is, if I try to start named with an essentially
    Andrew> "normal" named.conf file (for instance one that I grabbed
    Andrew> off of a BSDI box of mine that is running BIND 8.2 also,
    Andrew> or the one generated from my old named.conf file |'ed
    Andrew> through named-bootconf), the service starts, and within 1
    Andrew> second or less, dies.

    Andrew> If, however, I rename the hint file or remove the entry
    Andrew> for the hint zone in my named.conf file, named runs fine.
    Andrew> (Well, it runs fine for local zones, but obviously cannot
    Andrew> perform externa lookups). Any ideas? 

Unless you can provide more details - log messages, config files, zone
files, etc - it's hard to even guess at what is wrong.

    Andrew> I've tried at least 4 different hint files and
    Andrew> all seem to exhibit this issue.

So maybe the problem lies elsewhere? I can't see how even the most
broken root.cache file could make the name server die. Does your
named.conf have any other zone statement for the root zone?

There are really only two hints files for the root zone. If you're on
the internet, use ftp://ftp.rs.internic.net/domain/named.cache. This
contains the details of the Internet root name servers. If your name
servers are on an intranet that has its own internal root servers, you
should use a hints file containing the names and addresses of those
internal servers. Presumably that information will be available from
whoever set up the internal root. Remember that the information in the
hints file is used to tell your name server where to send queries to
find where the actual root name servers are located on the net.