[jgrahamc]

I wonder, if simple checksum verification of the file would have helped in avoiding this outage all together.

Oh man, you stirred up a really old Cloudflare memory. Back when I was working on our DNS infrastructure I wrote up a task that says: "RRDNS has no way of knowing how many lines to expect or whether what it is read is valid. This could create an issue where the LB map data is not available inside RRDNS."

At the time this "LB map" thing was critical to the mapping between a domain name and its associated IP address(es). Without it Cloudflare wouldn't work. Re-reading the years old Jira I see myself and Lee Holloway discussing the checksumming of the data. He implemented the writing of the checksum and I implemented the read and check.

I miss Lee.

[methyl]

For whom, like myself, don't know the story, here it is: https://www.wired.com/story/lee-holloway-devastating-decline...

I'm deeply moved after reading it. Can't imagine how tragic it must be for people who know Lee.

[maddyboo]

Sounds similar to what happened to Nietzsche:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche#Mental_ill...

[dylanz]

That was an incredible story, and I went down a rabbit hole of reading more about that disease. Thank you very much for sharing.

[yabones]

Wow, that is absolutely tragic. Neurodegenerative diseases are something I fear the most, having seen what Huntington's can do to somebody.