Version Number for old Bind installations

[Jack Barnett]

bash-2.00$ /usr/sbin/nslookup

Default Server:  localhost
Address:  127.0.0.1

> set class=chaos
> set type=txt
> version.bind

Server:  localhost
Address:  127.0.0.1

*** localhost can't find version.bind: Server failed
>
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi,

A couple questions here for everyone if someone would be kind enough to
answer.

1) I know the version of Bind they have install is old, really old and was
planning to upgrade it.  I think it is in the 4.* series but not sure what
specific version (it has the old style syntax), but the info in the FAQ
about getting the version number doesn't seem to work.  Am I doing something
wrong, or is getting the version number handled different in the 4.x series?

2) I plan to upgrade to BIND Version 8.2.2 patchlevel 5 (Released November
12th, 1999).  This is the one that they have listed as stable on secure on
the web page.  What I was wondering is, first both DNS servers are old and
have different syntax,

2a)  is there an easy way (ie: anyone have a perl script) that will parse
the old named db files into a format that  is compatible with the newer bind
version?  There is a lot of domains between the two servers (like 250+) and
everyone (about 10 people over the years) has used there own "style" about
doing things, so basically it is a complete fscking mess in the
/usr/local/named directory...

3) The primary server we use for primary DNS and secondary server for
secondary DNS.  What I wanted to do, is upgrade the secondary DNS to the
newer version of bind to find any problems that might occur when upgrading,
and also if any problems do happen, hopefully it won't be as noticeable to
the users if the secondary DNS is having problem, opposed to the primary
server having problems.  The question is

3a) Will the new bind (8 series) be able to work with the older style DNS (4
series) temporary without problems, or is there any known compatibility
issues between the two of em?

I know this is really fscking long post, but I am not sure exactly how to go
about this, any advice you could throw this way, would be greatly
appreciated.


Thanks,
Jack