Re: [dnsext] zone cut semantics

[Jay Ashworth <[e-mail]>]

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Brandon Black" <[e-mail]>

> On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 2:44 PM, Jim Reid <[e-mail]> wrote:
> > Nope. Query the .com name servers for the NS records for
> > example.com. They
> > correctly return a non-authoritative answer. It's only the name
> > servers for
> > example.com that are authoritative for example.com and will
> > authoritatively
> > answer that query. In other words, it's the child that's responsible
> > for the
> > zone's authoritative NS RRset, not the parent. Which is how things
> > should be
> > when you consider what delegation actually means: crossing an
> > administrative
> > boundary from one authority to another.
> >
> > Please think again about what you posted. The inference of what you
> > say is
> > that the root servers are authoritative for everything. That's
> > clearly not
> > true.
> 
> IMHO, this is where it's semantics. The root servers are
> authoritative for everything, that's why we believe their delegation
> answers. The AA-bit is just part of how the protocol signals
> delegation of authority. Yes, the child is responsible for its own NS
> records while the parent delegates, but the parent can take away the
> delegation at any time and serve the child's zone data directly.

You appear to be suggesting that the AA bit on the glue records in a 
parent zone *can be set*, merely by changing something in the parent
zone file.

I don't believe that to be true; TTBOMK, *the name server* makes that 
choice (to not set AA), *precisely because the parent server is not
considered to be authoritative for objects within its children's 
zones*.

I don't think that it's physically possible to make a parent server set
the AA bit on that glue, though I'd be happy to be proven wrong.  I don't
operate many parent zones.  :-)

So: people-who-do: is my supposition/assertion above correct?  If it is,
is it reasonable to draw from it the inference that I do (IE, that Jim is
correct and Brandon's not)?

I'm sure Albitz & Liu would tell me, but I do fancy stuff with DNS
insufficiently frequently for me to know where it is...

Cheers,.
-- jra