[pkg-ntp-maintainers] Bug#683061: Bug#683061: bug report #683061

[Thomas Hood]

On Tue, Jul 2, 2013 at 1:59 PM, Kurt Roeckx <kurt at roeckx.be> wrote:

> Do you know NXDOMAIN returns?  I think it returns just the same?
>


I don't immediately see how getaddrinfo() alone can be used to tell
whether or not an actual NXDOMAIN was received. A test with a small
C program reveals that retval -11 errno 2 is returned both in the
NXDOMAIN case and in the case where no nameservers could be found.



>
> So ntpd should just keep trying to resolv invalid hostnames?
>


That may seem like a waste of resources, but

* Computers are mobile these days and DNS also changes from the
perspective of those computers. A laptop may connect sometimes
to a LAN where the domain name ntp.somecorp.private resolves to
the address of a time server.  On other LANs this name does not exist.

* If the retry period is on the order of seconds then the resources
used aren't very significant.

* If the name of the time server never resolves and this is a problem
then it's the admin's fault for failing to configure ntpd properly.

I suppose the question really is, when should the admin be
notified that there is a problem?  Good question.  Is there something
wrong with ntpd just logging resolution failures and leaving it at that?

Anyway, you be the judge.

Best wishes,
-- 
Thomas
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