undefined | Better HN

0 pointsJdeBP5y ago0 comments

There is no such thing as unqualified names at this level. All domain names are fully qualified, and comprise one or more labels.

0 comments

boring_twenties5y ago

I'm referring not to a recursive nameserver, but to a caching one that simply forwards queries to an upstream resolver. Like the one in every consumer router. Usually that's dnsmasq, with this option:

       -D, --domain-needed
              Tells dnsmasq to never forward A or AAAA queries for plain names,  without  dots
              or  domain  parts,  to  upstream  nameservers.  If  the  name  is not known from
              /etc/hosts or DHCP then a "not found" answer is returned.

JdeBPOP5y ago

That is not an unqualified domain name, and notice that it does not say that it is.

* http://jdebp.uk./FGA/dns-name-qualification.html

And the words that you are looking for are "resolving" and "forwarding". A proxy DNS server either does query resolution itself or forwards to another proxy DNS server that does. Both sorts can cache, so whether something is a caching server is not the distinction. dnsmasq is choosing whether to forward the query or to do query resolution itself (using a local data source) according to the number of labels in the domain name. As I said, at this level the idea of domain name qualification does not apply.

You are also mis-using "resolver", incidentally. The actual meaning of "resolver" per RFC 1034 is not what people sometimes think it to be. Avoid using "resolver". The mis-use creates confusion.

See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15232208 .

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse