Newbie question regarding named.cache

[Joseph S D Yao]

On Sat, Jul 22, 2000 at 07:40:28PM +0000, HSC wrote:
> From: HSC <nospam at example.com>

If you want an answer, don't be bloody anti-social!

> named.ca    named.cache    named.root
> 
> I went to IANA's FTP site and got these three files only to discover that
> they are all the same and dated 01-19-1999!  Oh my, the root.hints file I am
> using and got from ftp.rs.internic.net is dated 08-22-1997!  Out of
> curiousity, I looked at what has changed in almost a year and a half -
> nothing.  The files are identical.
> 
> The one I got from IANA states that a copy can be found on the InterNIC
> site.  So I downloaded the three files mentioned from both sites.  They have
> different dates but are identical in content with the exception of comments
> and the last recorded update date.
> 
> Who creates these files and is officially in charge of maintaining them?
> And why the different naming conventions when they are identical in content?

The root servers have names and addresses that are not just made up,
but are "reality-based."  ;-}  If you look at who is maintaining it:

Non-authoritative answer:
(root)
	origin = A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET
	mail addr = hostmaster.nsiregistry.NET		<====
	serial = 2000073100
	refresh = 1800 (30 mins)
	retry   = 900 (15 mins)
	expire  = 604800 (7 days)
	minimum ttl = 86400 (1 day)

Authoritative answers can be found from:
(root)	nameserver = F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET
(root)	nameserver = G.ROOT-SERVERS.NET
(root)	nameserver = C.ROOT-SERVERS.NET
(root)	nameserver = H.ROOT-SERVERS.NET
(root)	nameserver = A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET
(root)	nameserver = D.ROOT-SERVERS.NET
(root)	nameserver = E.ROOT-SERVERS.NET
(root)	nameserver = I.ROOT-SERVERS.NET
(root)	nameserver = M.ROOT-SERVERS.NET
(root)	nameserver = L.ROOT-SERVERS.NET
(root)	nameserver = K.ROOT-SERVERS.NET
(root)	nameserver = J.ROOT-SERVERS.NET
(root)	nameserver = B.ROOT-SERVERS.NET
F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET	internet address = 192.5.5.241
G.ROOT-SERVERS.NET	internet address = 192.112.36.4
C.ROOT-SERVERS.NET	internet address = 192.33.4.12
H.ROOT-SERVERS.NET	internet address = 128.63.2.53
A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET	internet address = 198.41.0.4
D.ROOT-SERVERS.NET	internet address = 128.8.10.90
E.ROOT-SERVERS.NET	internet address = 192.203.230.10
I.ROOT-SERVERS.NET	internet address = 192.36.148.17
M.ROOT-SERVERS.NET	internet address = 202.12.27.33
L.ROOT-SERVERS.NET	internet address = 198.32.64.12
K.ROOT-SERVERS.NET	internet address = 193.0.14.129
J.ROOT-SERVERS.NET	internet address = 198.41.0.10
B.ROOT-SERVERS.NET	internet address = 128.9.0.107

So: "somebody at NSI".  [Clearly, the bug I saw mentioned earlier has
been fixed.]

Why different names?  Who knows?  Probably because different books and
tutorials call it different names, not that it matters, but it's easier
to make the different links to the same file than to explain that
constantly.

-- 
Joe Yao				jsdy at cospo.osis.gov - Joseph S. D. Yao
COSPO/OSIS Computer Support					EMT-B
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This message is not an official statement of COSPO policies.