[CLUE-Tech] host -l and subdomains, reverse DNS

[Kevin Fenzi]

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>>>>> "Keith" == Keith Christian <keithchristian at yahoo.com> writes:

Keith> Hi Folks, I have a couple of DNS questions.

Keith> After configuring DNS on a small 2 station 'network' everything
Keith> seems to be working except for two things.

Keith> 1. "host -l keithchristan.net" finds the primary domain and all
Keith> the subdomains with no problem:

Keith> 10:40:50 /var/named>host -l keithchristian.net
Keith> keithchristian.net SOA ns.keithchristian.net.
Keith> hostmaster.keithchristian.net. 200308071 10800 900 604800 86400
Keith> keithchristian.net name server ns.keithchristian.net.
Keith> keithchristian.net mail is handled by 10
Keith> mail.keithchristian.net.  keithchristian.net mail is handled by
Keith> 20 mail2.keithchristian.net.  keithchristian.net mail is
Keith> handled by 30 mail3.keithchristian.net.  keithchristian.net
Keith> mail is handled by 40 mail4.keithchristian.net.
Keith> alpha.keithchristian.net has address 192.168.1.153
Keith> bravo.keithchristian.net has address 192.168.1.153
Keith> charlie.keithchristian.net has address 192.168.1.153
Keith> delta.keithchristian.net has address 192.168.1.153
Keith> ftp.keithchristian.net is an alias for www.keithchristian.net.
Keith> localhost.keithchristian.net has address 127.0.0.1
Keith> news.keithchristian.net is an alias for www.keithchristian.net.
Keith> ns.keithchristian.net has address 127.0.0.1
Keith> www.keithchristian.net has address 192.168.1.153
Keith> keithchristian.net SOA ns.keithchristian.net.
Keith> hostmaster.keithchristian.net. 200308071 10800 900 604800 86400

Keith> .....Why can't "host -l" find a subdomain, say,
Keith> "www.keithchristian.net?"  I tried DIG and it finds them.

Keith> 10:40:56 /var/named>host -l www.keithchristian.net

Keith>     Host www.keithchristian.net not found: 9(NOTAUTH)
    
Keith>     ; Transfer failed.

host -l is not what you want probibly. From the host manpage: 

       List  mode is selected by the -l option. This makes host perform a zone
       transfer for zone name. The argument is provided for compatibility with
       older implemementations. This option is equivalent to making a query of
       type AXFR.

So, when you use -l you are asking for the entire dns zone. 
There isn't a www.keithchristian.net domain name, just a host. 
Also, the NOTAUTH indicates that you were not allowed to transfer that
zone. 

For hostnames you just want to use host with no flags, ie:

host www.keithchristian.net

Keith> 2. After configuring the "reverse zone" I expect to be able to
Keith> get the hostname for an IP address using "host -l" like so:

again you don't want to transfer the entire zone when you just want
one hostname back. 

Keith> 10:41:01 /var/named>host -l 192.168.1.153

Keith>     Host 153.1.168.192.in-addr.arpa not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)

Keith> The /var/log/messages file doesn't indicate any problems (at
Keith> least superficially) with the configuration.

Yeah, you want host without -l again there. 

Keith> ====Keith

kevin
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