One of the few recommended regular maintainence tasks of running a nameserver is to periodically update the root hints file. In fact the DNS-HOWTO on tldp.org has a section describing this[0].
This bug was recently pointed out to me, and I performed the dig commands recommended by the original bug submitter and found that there actually has been more root nameserver changes that have been made since the original report (and since the bind9 package's db.root hints file was last updated, which was in Feburary). Notably, the A records for the L, M, N root servers have been removed (although their NS records remain). Seeing as how root hints updates are recommended regular maintainence, it would be prudent for the bind packages to install a cronjob that does this sort of update, maybe once a month. That way a security update doesn't need to be done, nor do people need to find the package in volatile. Such a cronjob would have to make sure it didn't stop on any local admin changes to the file, and should handle failures gracefully. There are a few example cronjobs out there on the webbernet that could be used as a good starting point. micah 0. http://tldp.org/HOWTO/DNS-HOWTO-8.html
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature
