BIND: could not configure root hints from 'named.root': file not found

[Matthew]

CyberLeo Kitsana,
Thank you so much for the history and evolution on Bind expected 
directory structures.  It enabled me to jump through that tough spot.
Thanks again,
Matthew
> On 10/01/2010 12:52 PM, Matthew wrote:
>    
>> I would be grateful for any pointers on how to resolve this.  I suspect
>> the error message may not be exactly descriptive of whats happening.
>>      
> Kinda.
>
> Here's a few points to keep in mind when working with bind in FreeBSD:
>
> * By default, named runs in a chroot jail rooted at /var/named/.
>
> * For security reasons, named cannot write to anything in that tree,
> except the dynamic, slave, and working directories.
>
> * named uses its current working directory to resolve relative pathnames
> in the configuration file.
>
> * With a recent change to ISC Bind 9, named started complaining if it
> couldn't write to its current working directory. At the time, this was
> (chroot)/etc/namedb/; this was subsequently changed to
> (chroot)/etc/namedb/working/ to make named happy without compromising
> security.
>
> When the working directory for named was (chroot)/etc/namedb/,
> everything was peachy. Since this was changed, relative pathnames no
> longer work as expected because the reference point is different. The
> easiest solution is to alter your configuration file to include only
> absolute pathnames, relative to the root of the jail.
>
> The default named config file (in /var/named/etc/namedb/named.conf) is
> an excellent source of examples for this.
>
>