Re: [DNSOP] Last Call: <draft-ietf-dnsop-onion-tld-00.txt> (The .onion Special-Use Domain Name) to Proposed Standard

[Eliot Lear <[e-mail]>]

Hi David,

On 7/20/15 6:06 AM, David Cake wrote:
> As someone with moderate experience in both DNS and web server
> configuration, FWIW I found the meaning relatively obvious. The notion
> that HTTP Host headers might be used to change web server response
> independent of name resolution (e.g. that two names that return
> identical responses to every possible DNS query, but produce different
> web server responses) has been fairly intrinsic to how web servers
> operate for a couple of decades now, and this seems a simple but
> useful clarification regarding how this operates for .onion names to me.

Yes, there is an HTTP Host header.  Yes, responses vary by the *value*
but not by the *structure*.  As far as Apache is concerned, for
instance, I would imagine it's doing a string compare without counting
or considering dots.  By discussing an arbitrary number of components,
that paragraph implies that HTTP cares about the *structure* of the
name, when it does not (although some implementations might kludge this
with www.domain = domain). 

And I'll just hasten to add that now between you and Richard there are
two interpretations of what the text in the document means.  All I am
suggesting is a bit of clarity, please.

Eliot