Weird recursions...

[David Blacka]

>>>>> "Paul" == Paul Roberts <proberts at edge.edge.net> writes:

 Paul> I'm seeing something fairly unusual in our logs as to what the
 Paul> rwhois server is doing when looking up domain names...  I am
 Paul> almost 100% certain that this is a bug, because it's fairly
 Paul> regular in nature.  Here's an example...

 Paul> 12-Mar-97 11:59:21 [199.0.68.2     ] PID: 15412   Pass 0 Arg: ercnet.com
 Paul> 12-Mar-97 11:59:21 [199.0.68.2     ] PID: 15412   Ans: 0 data hits
 Paul> 12-Mar-97 11:59:21 [199.0.68.2     ] PID: 15412   Pass 1 Arg: 25QWQXercnet.com
 Paul> 12-Mar-97 11:59:21 [199.0.68.2     ] PID: 15412   Ans: 0 referral hits
 Paul> 12-Mar-97 11:59:21 [199.0.68.2     ] PID: 15412   Pass 2 Arg: 25QWQXcom
 Paul> 12-Mar-97 11:59:21 [199.0.68.2     ] PID: 15412   Ans: 0 referral hits

No, strange as this seems, it is the normal behavior for the 1.0B9
server.  the '25QWQX' thing is a wais-ism.  25 is the attribute-id
that it is trying (probably "referral", in this case) an the QWQX is
just an unlikely set of characters used to make 25QWQX<key> not
collide with another simple key.

The recursion you are seeing the server's attempt to reduce the query
and issue a referral.  In essence, it recognized 'ercnet.com' as a
hierarchical label and, when it doesn't find 'ercnet.com', searches
for a referral for 'ercnet.com', then 'com', and then it generates a
punt referral.

 Paul> Now, it's pretty apparent to me that this is a simple recursion attempt,
 Paul> but I'll be darned if I know where that '25QWQX' is coming from, aside
 Paul> from inside the server itself.  This sort of thing is also showing up in
 Paul> netmask recursive searches.

Yeah, the server tries to reduce on IP-Networks, too.

 Paul> Oh, and... 'SunOS edge 4.1.4 1 sun4m'...  Is anyone else seeing
 Paul> this problem?  I know we had a heck of a time getting this to
 Paul> compile to begin with, and I'm guessing it might be time to
 Paul> tweak a few things and try one more time.

Logs aside, in what way do you thing the server is malfunctioning?

-- 
David Blacka			  Software Engineer		   Directory Services/
davidb at rwhois.net		  Network Solutions, Inc.  RWhois Development