Re: [DNSOP] Some thoughts on special-use names, from an application standpoint

["John Levine" <[e-mail]>]

>IMHO, I believe that there can be a way to attach resolution semantics to
>top-level names and implement this in the API level.  IOW, for DNS "above
>the DNS" in the software stack.  This is just a belief, not a certainty.

Well, sure, that's how .onion and .local work now.  But there's no
general name resolution API other than the DNS, so anything else is
specific to whatever applications the API supports.

For .onion, the usual API is SOCKS (RFC 1928).  That works if you want
a TCP-like byte stream or a UDP-like packet stream, but you're out of
luck if you want to do service discovery with MX or SRV or NAPTR, or
certificate management with TLSA, or anything else the DNS does beyond
returning A and AAAA records with addresses to be used in a connect()
call.

To me, this is the worst problem with names that look like DNS names
but aren't in the DNS.  People will claim that they work fine, but
"fine" inevitably means some small set of applications, and they don't
care about (or aren't even aware of) everything else.

R's,
John