Problem with using $GENERATE for reverse-lookup (PTRs)

[Mark.Andrews at nominum.com]

> 
> Hey BIND experts ...
> 
> I'm running BIND 8.2.2-P5, and some time ago decided to use the nice
> $GENERATE feature for PTR records. In particular, I want to ensure
> reverse-lookup for all IPs in say, 172.16.1.0/24 resolve to something
> like "host-172-16-1-?.example.com". This worked fine until recently,
> either due to some mistake in my reverse zone (or perhaps a bug in
> BIND, maybe related to the size of the zonefile?). Now if I try to
> lookup a PTR within one of the ranges handled by my $GENERATE entries
> nothing is returned :(
> 
> Here is one of the $GENERATE entries in the reverse zone of interest:
> $GENERATE 51-254 $.1.16.172.in-addr.arpa. PTR host-172-16-1-$.example.com.
> 
> The reason I've fully-qualified both the lhs and the rhs fields is
> I'm using a single zonefile with symbolic links pointing to it for all
> the *.in-addr.arpa. domains the server is authoritative for. When AXFR
> is invoked via SIGHUP or due to refresh, the named process running
> locally (on the primary/master server) disregards the unrelated
> records as it builds the data structures for each symlinked zone (at
> least this seems to work fine! :) For example:

	This is most probably your problem.  Make each zone a seperate
	file and check your logs after loading.  If the zone loads without
	error it will be transfered with the generated entries.

> 
> /var/named/db.reverse
> /var/named/db.10 -> /var/named/db.reverse
> /var/named/db.172.16 -> /var/named/db.reverse
> /var/named/db.192.168 -> /var/named/db.reverse
> 
> and in named.conf, I would specify db.10, db.172.16, or db.192.168
> 
> So I guess my question is, what could be breaking the $GENERATE
> functionality, and is it related to my use of symlinks to "jam"
> records for many domains into a single physical zonefile? Again, at
> one point the $GENERATE stuff worked (when there was only a single
> $GENERATE entry, maybe).
> 
> Thanks in advance for your insight ...
> 
> --
> Ray
> 
> 
> 
--
Mark Andrews, Nominum Inc.
1 Seymour St., Dundas Valley, NSW 2117, Australia
PHONE: +61 2 9871 4742                 INTERNET: Mark.Andrews at nominum.com