Conference turris::digital_unix

9601.0. "Questions on hosts file and make_file for BIND" by CSC32::A_LICAUSE () Wed Apr 23 1997 09:33

    I have a customer that is telling me that make_hosts is not working
    correctly when he tries to setup his primary bind server.
    
    He states that it is ignoring aliases when on the same line, but
    treating them incorrectly when on difference lines.  He also states
    that it is not creating the SOA record correctly.  Thirdly he states
    that his A records are being created of the form host.domain.domain
    
    I forgot to ask him the version of dunix he was running, but I did
    spend some time looking through the O'Reilly book on DNS and BIND,
    but stopped short of consulting the RFC.
    
    I noticed that if I use the "shortcut" mentioned in O'Reilly
    (i.e. end a hostname with a "." in /etc/namedb/src/hosts) then
    make_hosts works just the way one would expect and creates an
    A record if the form hostname  IN  A  address, but if I leave
    off the ".", then it creates a record hostname.domain  IN A address
    
    Can someone please explain the correct format for
    /etc/namedb/src/hosts and then tell me if this same syntax also holds for
    /etc/hosts?
    
    Also if there are any tricks one can/should/must play in hosts or any
    other file for changing the way make_file creates the SOA record?
    
    Thanks,
    Al
    way that make_file