datasize limits and crashing in BIND 8.2.3-REL?

[Jim Reid]

>>>>> "Eivind" == Eivind Olsen <eivind.olsen at ttyl.com> writes:

    Eivind> I've read somewhere that the datasize-option will make
    Eivind> BIND crash if it reaches that limit. My understanding is
    Eivind> that the datasize is currently only usable to increase the
    Eivind> datasize-limit above the system default and should not be
    Eivind> used to keep the dns-cache below a given size.

Correct. Well you could use it to stop the cache growing too big, but
that's achieved by having the name server die if it goes over that
limit. 

    Eivind> The person I'm discussing this with tells me that those
    Eivind> BIND-crashes were fixed sometime in 1999 or 2000 and
    Eivind> doesn't apply to BIND 8.2.3-REL.

No, they're still there. When the memory allocation routine malloc()
fails, the name server just gives up. The plan is a future BIND9
release will handle memory limits more gracefully, for example by
discarding cached data before it was due to expire.