dig with and without +norec

[Barry Margolin]

In article <c1p590$v89$1 at sf1.isc.org>,
 Ladislav Vobr <lvobr at ies.etisalat.ae> wrote:

> I am somehow resending my earlier post. Can somebody give a hint why 
> recursive caching server behaves like this.

When you specify +norec, it answers with whatever it has in its cache, 
which in this case is the delegation records that came from the parent 
domain's servers.

When you request recursion, it checks whether the cached information 
came from an authoritative server.  If not, it tries to ask the 
authoritative servers.

I'm not sure why the recursive query is failing for you, though.  I have 
no problem querying any of the authoritative nameservers.  However, it's 
notable that your second dig returned the NS records in the Authority 
Section rather than the Answer Section, and didn't include the glue A 
records in the Additional Section.  What version of BIND are you running 
on the server?

> 
> I have issued the dig directly from the server.
> 
> [dxbins1:/]#dig ns af.mil @192.168.8.91
> 
> ; <<>> DiG 9.2.3 <<>> ns af.mil @192.168.8.91
> ;; global options:  printcmd
> ;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached
> 
> 
> [dxbins1:/]#dig ns af.mil @192.168.8.91 +norec
> 
> ; <<>> DiG 9.2.3 <<>> ns af.mil @192.168.8.91 +norec
> ;; global options:  printcmd
> ;; Got answer:
> ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 60916
> ;; flags: qr ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 6, ADDITIONAL: 0
> 
> ;; QUESTION SECTION:
> ;af.mil.                                IN      NS
> 
> ;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
> af.mil.                 58999   IN      NS      ARTEMIS.AFNOC.af.mil.
> af.mil.                 58999   IN      NS      NS.USAFE.af.mil.
> af.mil.                 58999   IN      NS      NS.MAXWELL.af.mil.
> af.mil.                 58999   IN      NS      MARS.AFNOC.af.mil.
> af.mil.                 58999   IN      NS      PAPA1.BARKSDALE.af.mil.
> af.mil.                 58999   IN      NS      DELTA1.BARKSDALE.af.mil.
> 
> ;; Query time: 19 msec
> ;; SERVER: 192.168.8.91#53(192.168.8.91)
> ;; WHEN: Sat Feb 28 08:12:24 2004
> ;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 170

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar at alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA