resolver's behavior

[Barry Margolin]

In article <e2l52j$1pim$1 at sf1.isc.org>,
 "Frank Y.F. Luo" <luoy at muohio.edu> wrote:

> Let me ask you guys a similar question:
> 
> a NS only allows authoritative query (that means recursive query turned
> off).

"Authoritative" refers to servers, not queries.  A server is (or is not) 
authoritative for some set of zones.

A query can either request or not request recursion.

> What if I configure a client ( Windows, Mac OS, Solaris, ....) to use this
> NS and do a non-authoritative query, what will happen? I know the first
> query will be "qr" - recursive preferred, but since recursive query turned

"qr" means "query"; I think you mean "rd", for "recursion desired".

> off, the NS will return the root NS will be returned to the client. What is
> supposed to happen at this time to client? Will client follow that to query
> root NS? Is there any difference in different resolver implementation as you
> know?

Clients that perform recursive queries usually can't do their own 
iteration -- they require the server to do it for them.  If their 
resolver is pointing to a non-recursive server, lookups simply fail.

The only possible exception would be if you configure one server to 
point to the non-recursive server as a forwarder.  I'm not sure what 
this does when it gets the referral back to the root.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar at alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
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