Re: djbdns-1.05-epoll + speedup patch

On Mon, Mar 05, 2007 at 10:27:42AM -0600, Pete Ehlke wrote:
> On Mon Mar 05, 2007 at 10:13:16 -0600, Matthew R. Dempsky wrote:
> The important operational question is not the efficiency or correctness
> of randomization in this area. The important question is the effect that
> randomization and retry strategies have when faced with unreliable
> networks and slow servers.
> 
> Compare dnscache with BIND 9 ( which has a more efficient retry and
> selection mechanism ) in
> http://dns.measurement-factory.com/writings/wessels-pam2004-paper.pdf

How is this relevant at all?  A quick review of the article indicates
it discusses the pros and cons of randomly choosing nameservers to
query rather than choosing them based on other heuristics.

The patch snippet in question does not change whether dnscache uses
randomization---it merely (and seemingly unintentionally) changes the
distribution of permutations from uniform to non-uniform.