How to debug BIND

[Steven Carr]

DIG is used to test/troubleshoot DNS queries. BIND logging is used to
troubleshoot the BIND server itself. Which are you trying to debug?

Also be mindful that BIND will cache any DNS entries it retrieves for
the defined TTLs, so if you dig a second time chances are it's not
going to go to the Internet, it will answer from cache.

If you are trying to examine exactly what BIND is querying then use
dig against the server for the requested records while running a
packet capture on the server itself. Filter the capture for all DNS
packets to see what's happening. Make sure BIND's cache is flushed
between digs.

If you want to debug the underlying BIND code then you'll need to use
an actual code debugger, BIND's debug logging is for debugging the
running of the program, so if you want to see it jumping through the
various code functions then look at GDB (GNU Project Debugger) - not
quite sure what you're hoping to gain from this though.

Steve