Adding root servers as local secondary zone to local caching server

[Jaap Akkerhuis]

 Mark Abram via Unbound-users writes:

 > This is an interesting thread.

Yes, but what I don't understand is the part in this discussion
about the root hints file. Is this just a confusion is the terminology?
Anyway, let me clarify what the root hints are and how they are
used.

As John Levine already states, the root hints play only a rile
during the priming (boots trapping) phase when the resolver starts.
For a full formal description of this process, see RFC 8109
"Initializing a DNS Resolver with Priming Queries"
(<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc8109/>).

A somewhat easier to read explanation one can find in the isc.org
article titled "Root hints - a collection of operational and
configuration FAQs" (<https://kb.isc.org/docs/aa-01309>).  This
describes this for bind of course,  but the principle is the same
foe most recursive DNS resolvers.

A very short description is the section on "Root Hints" on the IANA
site (<https://www.iana.org/domains/root/files>).

Just as most other resolver, these IANA root hints are actually
always used by unbound since they are compiled in. Only when one
wants to use a completely different root there is a need to supply
a separate root hints file.

Hope this helps.

	jaap