DNAME - Overlooked statement from Lisbon

[Rubber Duck]

Transcript - SSAC Open Meeting

28 March 2007


>>BILL MANNING: Okay. So all of my Web audience...

The answer to the question is that the -- all of the root name servers are running software which supports DNAME without trouble today. If we were asked to support DNAME for whatever reason, that would not be an issue.


>>BILL MANNING: Okay. The IANA general manager asked the question: You mean NSD supports DNAME, and he's referring to a specific DNS software implementation. The answer is: We have been told yes.

and some chatter about putting Unicode in the Root Zone or rather NOT:

>>HANSANG LEE: I'm not sure this might be relevant to this, but I think it should be. Did you have a study of putting in Unicode or UTF-8 into the root zone?

>>STEVE CROCKER: I'm not sure I completely under -- did we or do we plan to study putting in UTF-8 into the root zone? Is that the question?

>>HANSANG LEE: Yes. If you have, I would like to know, or if you didn't, if you have a plan in the future.

>>STEVE CROCKER: So my understanding of the way things are arranged is that UTF-8 is a way of representing IDNs, but the -- the ground rules for the root zone and for most of the DNS zones is restricted to letters, digits, and hyphens, and, say, the bridge between that is to transliterate or translate Unicode into letters, digits and hyphens. That translation results in a subset called Punycode. I'm on the learning curve here, so I want to -- I want to check to see whether or not what I just spoke is accurate. Have at it. I'm here.

>>SUZANNE WOOLF: No. I think it -- no, I think you're right. I think what's being looked at for the root zone is Punycode that is a translation of whatever representation is determined to be most adequate for the community's needs, but not changing the standard for what is allowed in the root zone. You know, legal host names under the DNS protocol. Frankly for reasons of backwards compatibility with the global installed base. And I'm seeing Thomas standing up in the back and wondering if he has something to add.

>>THOMAS NARTEN: Yes. This is Thomas Narten here. I guess I don't quite understand the question, because the direction for IDN -- I mean, for IDNs is to use the IDNA protocol which calls for ASCII in the zone, in the DNS, and no changes to the DNS, so the idea of putting Unicode into the root doesn't make sense from a testing perspective because we're not interested in testing that. That's not the solution that -- you know, the standards-based solution that we've been working on for the last five years.

>>STEVE CROCKER: Yeah. So there's a strong direct answer. Other questions? Good. The -- I mentioned RegisterFly