Re: [DNSOP] Clarifying referrals (#35)

[Bob Harold <[e-mail]>]

On Mon, Jan 15, 2018 at 4:39 PM, Andrew Sullivan <[e-mail]>
wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Some of you will perhaps recall that previous efforts at text on
> referrals were unsuccessful.  I've had another go.  I _think_ it
> addresses all the comments so far, without actually causing the
> terminology draft to drift into prescribing protocol.  It is
> unfortunately quite a bit longer, but that seems to be the cost of
> making all the points from the discussion.  Thoughts are solicited:
>
>    Referral:  A type of response in which a server, signalling that it
>       is not (completely) authoritative for an answer, provides the
>       querying resolver with an alternative place to send its query.
>       Referrals can be combined with partial answers.
>
>       A referral arises when a server is not performing recursive
>       service while answering a query.  It appears in step 3(b) of the
>       algorithm in [RFC1034], Section 4.3.2.
>
>       There are two types of referral response.  The first is a downward
>       referral (sometimes described as "delegation response"), where the
>       server is authoritative for some portion of the QNAME.  The
>       authority section RRset's RDATA contains the name servers
>       specified at the referred-to zone cut.  In normal DNS operation,
>       this kind of response is required in order to find names beneath a
>       delegation.  The bare use of "referral" means this kind of
>       referral, and many people believe that this is the only legitimate
>       kind of referral in the DNS.
>
>       The second is an upward referral (sometimes described as "root
>       referral"), where the server is not authoritative for any portion
>       of the QNAME.  When this happens, the referred-to zone in the
>       authority section is usually the root zone (.).  In normal DNS
>       operation, this kind of response is not required for resolution or
>       for correctly answering any query.  There is no requirement that
>       servers send them.  Some people regard upward referrals as a sign
>       of a misconfiguration or error.
>
>       A response that has only a referral contains an empty answer
>       section.  It contains the NS RRset for the referred-to zone in the
>       authority section.  It may contain RRs that provide addresses in
>       the additional section.  The AA bit is clear.
>
>       In the case where the query matches an alias, and the server is
>       not authoritative for the target of the alias but it is
>       authoritative for some name above the target of the alias, the
>       resolution algorithm will produce a response that contains both
>       the authoritative answer for the alias, and also a referral.  Such
>       a partial answer and referral response has data in the answer
>       section.  It has the NS RRset for the referred-to zone in the
>       authority section.  It may contain RRs that provide addresses in
>       the additional section.  The AA bit is set, because the first name
>       in the answer section matches the QNAME and the server is
>       authoritative for that answer (see [RFC1035], section 4.1.1).
>
> --
> Andrew Sullivan
> [e-mail]
>


That sounds clear and complete to me!

-- 
Bob Harold