On Fri, Nov 22, 2002 at 10:00:07AM +1100, Craig Sanders wrote: > > there have been no arguments brought forward against the bind zonefile > format. a few people have claimed that it sucks but without providing > any reason or evidence. djbdns doesn't support it and djb doesn't like > it - that means that it's broken, right? > > why, then, did that file format work for years before djbdns came along? > > the worst that can be said of it is that there were some minor > differences in it between bind version 8 and version 9 - and even then, > the difference was that bind 9 was more strict in it's requirement for > correctly formatted files. this incompatibility was documented.
Craig, this isn't really for you, but for the list at large. I honestly
don't mind if you use BIND, really :)
The problem with the BIND zone file format is that it's hard for
programs to parse.
A simple zone file (lycos.com) can be:
--------------------------
$TTL 1d
@ IN SOA invisible.lycos.com. nic-tech.lycos-inc.com. (
2002112000 ; serial
10M ; refresh (10 minutes)
5m ; retry (5 minutes)
4w ; expire (4 weeks)
600 ; minimum (10 minutes)
)
IN NS foo.lycos.com.
IN MX 10 foo.lycos.com.
www 10m IN A 123.123.123.123
--------------------------
$TTL 86400
lycos.com. 1H IN SOA invisible.lycos.com. nic-tech.lycos-inc.com. 2002112000 600 300
2419200 600
IN MX 10 foo.lycos.com.
lycos.com. 6H IN NS foo.lycos.com.
www 600 IN A 123.123.123.123
--------------------------
$TTL 1D
; I just feel like commenting
$ORIGIN com.
lycos 1h IN SOA invisible.lycos.com. nic-tech.lycos-inc.com. 2002112000 (
600 300 2419200 600 )
$ORIGIN lycos.com.
IN MX 10 foo.lycos.com.
lycos.com. 6H IN NS foo.lycos.com.
$INCLUDE www.record
--------------------------
and the file www.record has this single line in it:
--------------------------
www 600 IN A 123.123.123.123
--------------------------
So choice is great for people entering DNS info but bad for people
writing zone file parsers. The tinydns data file format for the above
zone will be the same every time. Sure if you run BIND you can slave the
zone to normalize the results and parse that - but OOPS there goes your
comments and ordering.
People who programatically manipulate DNS data often pick tinydns. Yes
you can use BIND and dynamic updates, but many people find the high risk
of update loss unacceptable.
This is about choice and the best tool for the job. Everybody shut the
hell up and use what you think is best for you (and be glad you have
choices in the first place).
--
Nate Campi http://www.campin.net
"Love seems the swiftest, but it is the slowest of all growths. No man
or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married
a quarter of a century." - Samuel Clemens
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