Root servers

[Bill Christensen]

On 8/15/14 9:42 AM, /dev/rob0 wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 10:14:09AM -0400, Thomas Schulz wrote:
> I wrote:
>>> On Thu, Aug 14, 2014 at 02:26:54PM -0500, Bill Christensen wrote:
>>>> It looks like my root pointers are horribly out of date.  Seems
>>>> to me this is something which should automatically update...
>>> Not much, and yes.
>>>
>>>> ;       This file is made available by InterNIC
>>>> ;       under anonymous FTP as
>>>> ;           file                /domain/named.root
>>>> ;           on server           FTP.INTERNIC.NET
>>>> ;       -OR-                    RS.INTERNIC.NET
>>>> ;
>>>> ;       last update:    Feb 04, 2008
>>>> ;       related version of root zone:   2008020400
>>> That's old, but not so old as to prevent you from reaching an
>>> actual root server.  Of course it was 2 years before the root
>>> was signed.
>> I will add my $0.02. The named executable has the root information
>> built in so that it can start up if there is no named.root file
>> available. So, if you had no named.root file but did have the
>> latest release of Bind then you would have the current data. If you
>> do not update Bind the moment that a new version is released then
>> you need a current named.root file.
> Not really.  There are enough valid servers from 2008020400 to be
> able to resolve ./IN/NS now.  In fact I bet you could turn on an
> ancient BIND 4 today and still be able to resolve the root.
>
>> Just go get a new one from the
>> server listed at the top of the old file.
> Sure, that's good advice, which is why I left it in the posted
> message.  But probably better advice is to upgrade to a supported
> BIND version.  If the OS is so old to be have a 2008020400 hint
> file, it probably means no updates have been done along the way.
Interesting.  I'm running BIND 9.10.0-P2.  Apparently the package system 
I'm using (MacPorts) isn't updating the root servers file though.

I'll report the problem there.  Meantime, I'll download the recent one 
and see if that makes a difference.