start script for bind9

[Timothe Litt]

YMMV wrt "just works".  Yes, running the latest ISC bind can be worthwhile
after the OS distribution stops updating (or before it gets around to
packaging the latest ISC version.)

People considering the approach suggested by David & Alan should be aware
that the OS startup files often do more than just running named.

For example, under fedora: checkconf, checkzone, chroot and (in some
versions) selinux setup are handled in /etc/init.d/named, along with quite a
few sanity checks.

You may be better off copying the OS script & changing it to run named from
/usr/local/sbin if your environment is non-trivial.

Even if it's not, it's worth doing a few sanity checks (like making sure
networking is up).

In any case, be sure to understand what you're giving up if you elect to go
with the "just works" defaults in the named executable.  It may be OK for
some, but I tend to be more careful with important systems.

---------------------------------------------------------
This communication may not represent my employer's views,
if any, on the matters discussed. 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: David Forrest [mailto:drf at maplepark.com] 
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2011 11:53
To: Dave Forrest
Cc: bind-users at lists.isc.org
Subject: Re: start script for bind9

On Thu, 14 Apr 2011, Alan Clegg wrote:

> On 4/14/2011 10:23 AM, hugo hugoo wrote:
>
>> I know that if bind is installed via apt-get install (I am using 
>> debian linux version), there is automatically a bind9 startup script 
>> in /etc/init.d/ directory.
>
> Since named "just works" and I do everything else using rndc, I have 
> the following line in /etc/rc.local:
>
>        /usr/local/sbin/named
>
> AlanC
>
I also find that named "just works" and, since the source install uses the
/usr/local/sbin as the default target, it does not overwrite my distribution
(Fedora) binary.  It is also important to my setup that named is always
running so I use a root crontab entry:
/usr/bin/pgrep named >/dev/null ||  /usr/local/sbin/named -u named that runs
every minute to insure it is up.  I can then stop it with rndc stop  and it
will restart on the next minute's crontab event.

I can return to my distribution's upstart by stopping using the rndc and
immediately start it's binary using the service command, but have found the
ISC source tarballs a better solution to my needs that include DNSSEC and
IPv6 while Fedora 11 is EOL.  YMMV.

Dave F
-- 
St. Louis, Missouri    (Sent by ALPINE 2.02 FEDORA 11 LINUX)