stats-file explained

[Bernhard Schmidt]

Hi,

I have some troubles understanding the format of the stats file of BIND
9.3.1. I've looked into the script posted some years ago in this
ml/group (http://www.snoogans.co.uk/files/rndcstats.pl) and to my
opinion the author uses the wrong algo to get the full number of queries

queries = success + seferral + nxrrset + nxdomain + recursion + failure

I interpret the BIND9 ARM in the following way:

success = nxrrset + "noerror" (queries with NOERROR and ANSWER > 0)

Queries which are successful (NOERROR) and not referrals can only have
no answer section (nxrrset) or an answer section. The latter is not
defined in the stats file but can be easily calculated.

queries = success + nxdomain + referral + failure

The complete number of queries is then success (NOERROR) + nxdomain +
referral (NOERROR, but referral) + failure. 

recursion would be a part of queries, for which the nameserver had to do
recursion and can be seen as some sort of "cache efficiency". On a
nameserver only asked local-zone data it should be 0, on a resolver
never asked the same query twice it should be equal to success.

Thanks for any answers
Bernhard