[weirds] Questions about suffix matches in domain and nameserver searches

[Brian Mountford <[e-mail]>]

RFC 7482 describes the format of search strings to be used in partial match
queries. If I understand correctly, a wildcard search string should have a
prefix, exactly one wildcard asterisk, and then zero or more complete
domain labels at the end. I am wondering if the RDAP authors had in mind an
efficient way to implement such queries on a standard database system. The
prefix and single wildcard seem to be designed for ease of lookup using a
sorted database index. But then I'm not sure how one would efficiently
implement the domain label suffixes. For instance, it appears to be legal
to search for nameservers using the pattern ns*.subdomain.example.tld. The
ns* part is easy, but the suffix is harder to figure out. I am tempted to
think that the authors figured that queries too complicated for a given
system would just get rejected as per the wiggle room in the RFC. But if
that's the case, why is only one wildcard allowed? Why not define a generic
syntax with asterisk as the wildcard, and let implementors decide where to
draw the line. I'm unclear on the thought process behind the spec.

In a tangentially related question, it looked to me like IP address lookups
of nameservers and domains did not need to support a wildcard asterisk,
because the syntax was never defined. Is that true? Or does the RDAP spec
envision wildcard IP address lookups as well? If so, what is the syntax for
that?

Thanks.

Brian