BIND 9.0.0 alpha 1


Status

Most of the core technology planned for BIND 9 is in this release.  Some
of the highlights are:

	IPv6

		Support for bitstring labels, DNAME, and A6 records.

		IPv6-aware resolver (follows A6 chains, can use IPv6 to
		talk to other nameservers).

		The nameserver listens on an IPv6 socket.

	DNSSEC

		All new RR types supported.

		The server generates DNSSEC responses for secure zones.

	EDNS0 (server only), IXFR, AXFR, dynamic update


With the exception of the DNSSEC validator, all the major new
functionality is done.  We expect to finish the DNSSEC validator by
Dec. 1.

This release is alpha quality.  There are still a number of unfinished
areas, for example: most config file options, sanity checking,
performance tuning, high-volume client support, garbage collection,
however, none of these areas are especially difficult.

We've used BIND 9 as the nameserver while web surfing and doing other
ordinary tasks, and it has worked.  We've successfully answered
queries sent over IPv6 sockets, and have used IPv6 to query other
nameservers (also running BIND 9 of course!).


Building

We've had successful builds and tests on the following systems

	AIX 4.3
	BSDI 3.1, 4.0.1
	COMPAQ Tru64 UNIX 4.0D, 5.0
	FreeBSD 3.3
	HP-UX 11
	IRIX64 6.5
	NetBSD 1.4.1
	Red Hat Linux 6.0, 6.1
	Solaris 2.6, 7

To build, just

	./configure
	make

Do not run 'make install'.  Shared libraries will be built if "--with-libtool"
is added to the "configure" command.

Building with gcc is not supported, unless gcc is the vendor's usual
compiler (e.g. the various BSD systems, Linux).


bin/named notes

The server now uses the BIND 8 config file format.  All options are parsed,
but most do not have any effect as yet.

The server now runs on port 53 by default.  Use "-p" if you want to run
on a different port.

The server does not yet "daemonize".


API Note

All APIs are subject to change in future code drops.  We expect the
existing library interfaces in the code drop to be quite stable,
however, and unless we've specifically indicated that an interface is
temporary, we don't expect significant changes in future releases.