question about serial numbers

Mark_Andrews at isc.org Mark_Andrews at isc.org
Tue Jun 29 02:52:48 UTC 1999


> Mark_Andrews at isc.org wrote:
> 
> >         Perhaps you should read RFC 1982 rather than rattle off the
> >         nonsence below.  It is quite possible to go from any serial
> >         number to any other.  Sometimes it take a intemediate step
> >         or two but it is always possible.  The only time when you have
> 
> I did read RFC 1982, and your C code is rather pretty.  You obviously know
> more about the finer details; BUT I have to disagree.  First what's so
> wrong with just doing some simple editing, file renaming, and SIGHUPing.
> Heck with sed, and rsh you could probably write a script that automates
> this for you.  Is BIND going to break if I SIGHUP it too many times?  Is
> SAGE going to tear up my membership card, because I use a not to elegant 
> a solution to the problem?  Will I die only to spend an
> eternity with only copies of "DNS & BIND" to read.  I think not.

	Because it require work to be performed on the secondaries. The
	only time a secondary should need to be touched is when the zone
	is setup or when the nameservers change IP address.  When you have
	100000 zones you don't need the extra hassle especially when the
	protocol is designed to handle this.

> 
> You question was how you fix a particular problem, and not about how you
> can play games with the serial numbers.  Granted, your solution was
> is best if 1) you have a secondary not under your control, and 2)
> you either don't wan't to bother or you don't want to own up to the fact
> that you goofed, or possibly just have too many secondary servers.   Also,
> your solution depends on figuring out the magic numbers that makes it work,
> and then waiting through all of those zone timeouts and transfers.

	You can also just keep going with the number sequence as it
	currently is, the nameservers don't care what the value is.
	Encoding dates is just one way to get a monotonically increasing
	sequence not the only way.
> 
> Who cares.  Both of these ideas are "DNS and BIND".  My only point
> was that "Read the RFC" wasn't too insightful of an answer, and never
> is.

	If it was just read the RFC without citing its number it would
	be.  The reply could also have been to use deja.com or read a
	DNS FAQ.

	Just asking a news group without trying to find a solution your
	self is abusing the process.  It takes time to just read a
	message and there are a lots of people reading this newsgroup /
	mailing list.

	Mark

> Else why have either a book or the newsgroup?  The RFC's are
> freely available, let's just all read them.
> 
> --
>      /^^^\      Craig Dupree                Academic Computing Services
>     /~O~O~\     Network Support Specialist  Univ. Texas at Arlington 
>     \  U  /     cdupree at uta.edu             PO Box 19318
> -oOo-------oOo- Davis Hall, B88I            Arlington, TX 76019
>                 (817)272-7093
> 
--
Mark Andrews, Internet Software Consortium
1 Seymour St., Dundas Valley, NSW 2117, Australia
PHONE: +61 2 9871 4742                 INTERNET: marka at isc.org


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