[dns-operations] dotless domains

[Doug Barton]

On 09/21/2012 15:46, Rick Jones wrote:
> 
>> 2. We are not limited by the status quo. While the _current_ state of
>> things is that we cannot guarantee that single labels will work reliably
>> in all cases, those who are putting very large sums of money into the
>> process of acquiring and operating these domains (especially the .brand
>> domains) will not hesitate to expend effort (and $$) to bring other
>> developers up to speed. For example, in the browser it is a very simple
>> matter to first append a dot to a single label and see if it resolves
>> before trying the search domains.
> 
> But is that really, consistently the right thing to do?
> 
> I suppose that browsers are already more than a little bit pregnant with
> their willingness to append TLDs to single labels, but suppose someone
> happens to have a subnet with a bunch of machines named for  fruit -
> apple, pear, grape, etc. Are they going to have to go-in and configure
> their (possibly auto-updated) browsers to not append that dot so the
> resolv.conf search directive with their subdomain will still let them
> get to their apple.subdomain rather than go to apple.?

Properly configure the search string in your DHCP response. Properly
configure your browsers to either do or not do local test resolutions
first .... you are making my point for me that there are numerous ways
to make this work, and the browser authors are already not providing a
consistent experience.

Doug

-- 

    I am only one, but I am one.  I cannot do everything, but I can do
    something.  And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what
    I can do.
			-- Edward Everett Hale, (1822 - 1909)