Nameserver Problem [more] -

[Ed Greshko]

  Tim wrote:

> I've seen a few things which merely increment the serial number.  Such
> as the DHCP that comes with Fedora.  If you started off using dates,
> it'd just add one to the number, and you're left with a nonsense number
> in the serial code.  Sure, it'll work, as it's a higher number, but it
> won't mean what you think it did.

That can happen when you rely on GUI's and don't understand what lies 
beneath.  Can't recall the last time I used a GUI for system administration.

> Using a date code is a simple way of putting in a new serial code
> without caring what the prior number is.  But that has its own problems.
> It can make a serial code go backwards if it was already a higher
> number, because the last editor used a different scheme.  

If you're going to change the scheme of things then you need to understand 
what you are doing.  If you have multiple admins and you don't have a scheme 
in place as well as documented procedures then your problems go much deeper.

> It's quite
> easy for that to happen if you'd done numerous changes to a zone file in
> one day, there's not enough digits in the code to do years+months+days
> +hours+minutes+extra_changes.  At least, not enough digits in some DNS
> servers that I've used.

Must have been old ones...

>   From a programatic point of view, you really need to check what the
> number was, and *at* *least* increment it by one.  But *only* do so when
> needed.

And get at least 8 hrs of sleep a night.