Bind9: man file for rndc utility mentions wrong config file location

Bug #1897545 reported by Dmitriusan
8
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
bind9 (Debian)
Fix Released
Unknown
bind9 (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Medium
Unassigned
Bionic
Won't Fix
Medium
Unassigned
Focal
Won't Fix
Medium
Unassigned
Groovy
Won't Fix
Medium
Unassigned
Hirsute
Won't Fix
Medium
Unassigned
Impish
Won't Fix
Medium
Unassigned
Jammy
Fix Released
Undecided
Unassigned
Kinetic
Fix Released
Medium
Unassigned

Bug Description

Man page for the rndc utility mentions that /etc/rndc.key and /etc/rndc.conf are default locations for config files. That is not true.

> man rndc
```
       -c config-file
           Use config-file as the configuration file instead of the default, /etc/rndc.conf.

       -k key-file
           Use key-file as the key file instead of the default, /etc/rndc.key. The key in /etc/rndc.key will be used to authenticate commands sent to the server if the config-file does not exist.

```

In fact, running rndc with strace shows that it looks for these files at /etc/bind
```
futex(0x7ff0e3472028, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 1
stat("/etc/bind/rndc.conf", 0x7ffe2b70d1e0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/etc/bind/rndc.key", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0640, st_size=77, ...}) = 0
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/etc/bind/rndc.key", O_RDONLY) = 6
```

# Suggested resolution:
update the man page so it is not misleading.

Use case: on my configuration, Bind9 is configured to listen on 127.0.0.2 because I use another DNS server that handles most traffic at 127.0.0.1. But I could not get rndc to talk to correct ip address regardless of what I wrote at /etc/rndc.conf. Finally, strace revealed that the expected config file location is different from what man page tells. I've spent a considerable amount of time debugging what is wrong with my configuration

# System and version information:

Ubuntu 18.04

Package: bind9
Version: 1:9.11.3+dfsg-1ubuntu1.13

Changed in bind9 (Ubuntu Focal):
status: New → Triaged
Changed in bind9 (Ubuntu Bionic):
status: New → Triaged
Changed in bind9 (Ubuntu):
status: New → Triaged
Changed in bind9 (Ubuntu Focal):
importance: Undecided → Medium
Changed in bind9 (Ubuntu Bionic):
importance: Undecided → Medium
Changed in bind9 (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Medium
Changed in bind9 (Ubuntu Groovy):
status: New → Triaged
status: Triaged → Confirmed
Changed in bind9 (Ubuntu Hirsute):
status: New → Confirmed
status: Confirmed → Triaged
Changed in bind9 (Ubuntu Groovy):
status: Confirmed → Triaged
importance: Undecided → Medium
Changed in bind9 (Ubuntu Hirsute):
importance: Undecided → Medium
Changed in bind9 (Debian):
status: Unknown → New
Revision history for this message
Athos Ribeiro (athos-ribeiro) wrote :

I submitted a patch to Debian through salsa [1], pinged the maintainer in BTS [2], and forwarded the patch upstream [3].

[1] https://salsa.debian.org/dns-team/bind9/-/merge_requests/16
[2] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=606767
[3] https://gitlab.isc.org/isc-projects/bind9/-/issues/2717

Bryce Harrington (bryce)
Changed in bind9 (Ubuntu Groovy):
status: Triaged → Won't Fix
Revision history for this message
Brian Murray (brian-murray) wrote :

The Hirsute Hippo has reached End of Life, so this bug will not be fixed for that release.

Changed in bind9 (Ubuntu Hirsute):
status: Triaged → Won't Fix
Revision history for this message
Athos Ribeiro (athos-ribeiro) wrote :

As per https://gitlab.isc.org/isc-projects/bind9/-/merge_requests/5815, a fix is scheduled for the 9.18.1 upstream release, which should be out by the end of March, 2022.

Revision history for this message
Lena Voytek (lvoytek) wrote :

This was fixed in Jammy and Kinetic

Changed in bind9 (Ubuntu Jammy):
status: New → Fix Released
Changed in bind9 (Ubuntu Kinetic):
status: Triaged → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Brian Murray (brian-murray) wrote :

Ubuntu 21.10 (Impish Indri) has reached end of life, so this bug will not be fixed for that specific release.

Changed in bind9 (Ubuntu Impish):
status: Triaged → Won't Fix
Changed in bind9 (Debian):
status: New → Fix Released
Changed in bind9 (Ubuntu Bionic):
status: Triaged → Won't Fix
tags: added: bitesize
Revision history for this message
Michał Małoszewski (michal-maloszewski99) wrote :

Most likely I will assign myself here, but it is possible that something less bitesize will be grabbed by me, so until tomorrow I will leave a comment like that.

Revision history for this message
Michał Małoszewski (michal-maloszewski99) wrote :

Move on.

Revision history for this message
Robie Basak (racb) wrote :

I don't think it's worth fixing this in Focal (20.04). Newer releases are all fixed.

Changed in bind9 (Ubuntu Focal):
status: Triaged → Won't Fix
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