[newbie] named.conf file not in /etc

[Simon Waters]

Alan Shiers wrote:
> 
> I'm absolutely new to Linux and BIND.  I need some basic guidance.

Sure - what precisely are you trying to do? Most people don't
need to run a name server.

> I installed BIND version 9.2 so I suspect there might be differences in
> the way it is supposed to be configured from older versions.

It is a bit different, but largely similar to BIND 8. 

BIND 9 comes with an excellent manual (in the source tar ball
and on the site www.isc.org). A good book always helps - the
bible is O'Reillys DNS and BIND (Edition 4) by Cricket Liu and
Albitz - but might be overkill if your needs aren't great.
 
> When I check the documentation that came with Red Hat, it mentions
> making use of a utility called "bindconf".

Brave creating the named.conf by hand! You'll learn more that
way, and be able to use the full range of features.

named.conf can be as simple as;

zone "." { type forward ; forward only  ;         
 forwarders { 158.152.1.43; 158.152.1.58; } ; };     

Which says just go ask these other two name servers (although
forwarding isn't recommended).

You'll find plenty of tutorials on the net.
 
> I'm a bit confused as to why there is a named.conf in the
> /etc/log.d/conf/services directory also

In that directory it is probably to define how to rotate the
named log files, rather than anything to do with the program
itself, but I'm guessing on that one.