can't open '/dns/etc/named.conf'

[David C. Kleinman]

I inherited a chrooted dns environment and wanted to upgrade from bind 8.2.3
to 8.3.3 (on rh 7.2).

I compiled after setting the linux port setting to:
'CC=gcc -D_GNU_SOURCE'
'CDEBUG=-O -g'
'DESTBIN=/dns/bin'
'DESTSBIN=/dns/sbin'
'DESTEXEC=/dsn/sbin'
'DESTMAN=/dns/man'
'DESTHELP=/dns/lib'
'DESTETC=/dns/etc'
'DESTRUN=/dns/var/run'
'LEX=flex -8 -I'
'YACC=yacc -d'
'SYSLIBS='
'LIBL=-lfl'
'INSTALL=install'
'MANDIR=man'
'MANROFF=cat'
'CATEXT=$$N'
'PS=ps -p'
'AR=ar crus'
'RANLIB=:'

After installation the server restart failed with the following error:

[root at fatmama sbin]#/etc/rc.d/init.d/named start
can't open '/dns/etc/named.conf'
[root at fatmama sbin]# /dns/sbin/named -u named -g named -t /dns
can't open '/dns/etc/named.conf'

Yet the file is there.
[root at fatmama sbin]# file /dns/etc/named.conf
/dns/etc/named.conf: ASCII C++ program text

Please help.

Thanks

======================================================
David C. Kleinman, Unix Systems Administrator
david at i-ology.com
======================================================