does authority named require the external name servers?

[Jeff Pang]

2011/5/2 Torinthiel <torinthiel at data.pl>:

>
> Authority named never sends queries on it's own, only responds to
> submitted queries.

Doesn't it execute iterative query from the root server?

For example, given the nameserver is authority for abc.com.
And abc.com has two NS RRs:

abc.com.    IN   NS   ns1.def.com.
abc.com.    IN   NS   ns2.def.com.

def.com is authoritative resolved by other nameservers.

If there is no correct nameserver list in /etc/resolv.conf, then this
named can't find ns1.def.com and ns2.def.com?

Thanks again.