debug level 1 output question

[David Anderson]

Jim Reid wrote:
> 
> >>>>> "David" == David Anderson <drm_anderson at NOSPAMhotmail.com> writes:
> 
>     David> Hi, Can anyone explain to me what the following lines mean
>     David> from debug 1 output of a 4.9.7 server ?
> 
>     David> np_parent(0x0) couldn't find root entry
> 
>     David> This happens on start up and happens for all primary zones.
>     David> Can I ignore it?
> 
> Looks like your name server doesn't know about the root zone or the
> root name servers. If that's the case, you can't ignore it. [Well, you
> could ignore it, but that would make it more than a little difficult
> to lookup non-local names...] Do you have a line like:
>         cache . named.cache

yup I have:-
cache           .                       db.cache

Further to your comment about non-local names.  I am having great
difficulty at times getting answers to queries like 
lw4d.law4.hotmail.msn.com and even www.yahoo.co.uk.  And yet imediately
afterward a subsequent request for the same non-local name works OK.  I
thought it was a timeout issue with the client or someother timeout
issue - could the two be related ?

> in named.boot and does named.cache have the names and addresses of the
> root name servers in it?

yup I got the hints file from www.dns.net/dnsrd "Root Server Hints File"
link to ftp.is.co.za/internet/domain/named.root the other day.
 
> PS: Please don't put a bogus email address in your posting. It doesn't
> make any difference to the spammers and it makes life harder for
> anyone who tries to answer your question.

No one has complained about it before, and I don't seem to get much spam
from posting in other groups so I was under the impresion that it was
sort of working.  Granted it can be a pain, and I have even managaed to
catch out myself once.  However 'tis gone now.