bind 8.2.1

Kevin Darcy kcd at daimlerchrysler.com
Fri Sep 24 19:54:03 UTC 1999


I suppose it could have been documented more clearly, but I disagree that this
one relatively-minor change warranted a new major version number, especially
since the new "error" doesn't actually prevent the zone from loading. In fact,
other than a little snivelling in the logs, it's upward compatible, i.e. the
SOA minimum gets used as the TTL default.


- Kevin

Skip Montanaro wrote:

>     Barry> Someone posting a question in this group is most likely a network
>     Barry> administrator, who should know how to make use of Internet
>     Barry> resources to find answers to common questions.  But I guess I'm
>     Barry> wrong, because this particular question gets asked 2-3 times a
>     Barry> week in this group.
>
> Agreed, though not everyone is a network administrator out of choice (myself
> included).  I still think the fact that this one little change has tripped
> up so many people suggests the change was not handled properly.
>
> Perhaps bind upgrades have been so problem-free in the past that people
> naturally expected no problems upgrading this time.  When I went from 4.9.7
> to 8.1.2, I experienced no problems.  The zone file format was 100% backward
> compatible.  The config file format changed, but the perl script provided
> with the distribution took care of that.  I didn't have to diddle with the
> generated named.conf file at all.
>
> I just scanned through the CHANGES and README files that came with 8.2.1
> looking for notes about the TTL change.  I saw nothing that would suggest
> that $TTL is now required.  Perhaps something should be added to README that
> indicates that.
>
> My seat-of-the-pants experience with other packages is that if a new version
> of a package breaks the published interface (I think zone files count as
> part of the interface in this case) a change in the major version of the
> package is warranted.  In reality, I had more difficulty upgrading from
> 8.1.2 to 8.2.1 than I did when going from 4.9.7 to 8.1.2.
>
> So, to reiterate my position, I think the following changes are reasonable:
>
>     a) The error message "No default TTL set using SOA minimum instead"
>        should be somehow friendlier.
>
>     b) The release notes for bind should indicate the new $TTL requirement
>        in the zone file.
>
> Just my observations.
>
> Skip Montanaro | http://www.mojam.com/
> skip at mojam.com | http://www.musi-cal.com/
> 847-971-7098   | Python: Programming the way Guido indented...





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