Bind-8 directory usage

[Kenneth W Cochran]

Thank you for your responses.

Well, now that we've "established" that this is "possible," my
question is "is this desirable?"

Part of why I'm asking here is that at a previous usergroup
meeting, I mentioned putting nameserver configs someplace
besides /var & was nearly fed to the sharks...  :)
What was said was along the lines of "everyone else puts it in
/var, so you probably should, too..."  ("Everyone else" meaning
Solaris, HP-UX, Linux FSStnd...)

But I have some books from who I'd guess are Very Respected
Authors :), & one of them puts these in, for example
/var/domain.  (!)

The approach I'm exploring is to put system-configuration things
*I* do into /etc & things that "it" ("the system" or named or
"things retrieved/downloaded, such as named-xfers of
secondaries") into /var, on the semi-assumption that /var can be
(somewhat) "sacrificial" & that I take more aggressive measures
to preserve /etc.

Also, IIRC, the named documentation & books do not make it clear
that (well, at least to me :) the "directory" option only means
"default directory" & that explicit paths can be specified on
the zone stanzas.  Perhaps I did not dig deep enough, though...

Again, thank you for your advice & input.

-kc

----------
Mark Andrews wrote:

>From marka at isc.org  Wed May 17 01:09:21 2000
>Cc: bind-users at isc.org
>From: Mark.Andrews at nominum.com
>Subject: Re: Bind-8 directory usage
>Date: Wed, 17 May 2000 15:07:20 +1000
>
(I originally wrote:)
>> Hi,
>> Is there a way to "split" the directory that named (8.2.2p5) uses?
>>
>> I'm wondering how feasible it would be to keep my "config"
>> things in /etc & "variable" things in /var; hopefully it would
>> make it easier to upgrade systems software, because all my
>> config things would be in /etc & it would lessen the things I'd
>> have to remember to preserve...  :)
>>
>> For example:
>>
>> Placing the "site config specific" config things (such as zone
>> files) in, say, /etc/named, but putting anything "downloaded"
>> (ie. secondaries) into /var/named.
>>
>> Or is this just a Bad Idea(tm)?  :)
>
>	This is quit reasonable.  Just use fully qualified path names
>	for one or the other.  Alternatively use a symbolic link.
>
>	e.g.
>		options {
>			"directory /etc/named";
>		}
>
>		zone "master.example" {
>			type master;
>			file "master.example.db";
>		}
>
>		zone "slave.example" {
>			type slave;
>			file "cache/slave.example.db";
>			masters {...};
>		}
>
>	and /etc/named/cache is a symbolic link to /var/named.
>
>	Mark
>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> -kc
>--
>Mark Andrews, Nominum Inc.
>1 Seymour St., Dundas Valley, NSW 2117, Australia
>PHONE: +61 2 9871 4742                 INTERNET: Mark.Andrews at nominum.com

And Barry Margolin wrote:

>From barmar at gtei.net  Wed May 17 12:33:34 2000
>Date: Wed, 17 May 2000 16:31:14 GMT
>From: Barry Margolin <barmar at genuity.net>
>Subject: Re: Bind-8 directory usage
>
... (my original message snipped)
>
>You can put absolute pathnames in the "file" commands.  The
>"directory" option just specifies the default directory that
>relative pathnames work from.
>
>--
>Barry Margolin, barmar at genuity.net
>Genuity, Burlington, MA