[dns-operations] Hearing first complains about failing internal resolving due to .prod TLD

[Mark Andrews]

In message <541271BA.2000703 at redbarn.org>, Paul Vixie writes:
> 
> On 9/11/2014 8:22 PM, Mark Andrews wrote:
> > In message <54125EDC.6000904 at redbarn.org>, Paul Vixie writes:
> >> On 9/11/2014 7:08 PM, Mark Andrews wrote:
> >>> ...
> >>>  
> >>> I just wish I had been able to convince Paul to remove support for
> >>> partially qualified names back when RFC 1535 came out.  We knew
> >>> then that they were a bad idea.  ndots minimises the damage of using
> >>> partially qualified names.  It doesn't remove it.
> >> at the time (1993?) i felt it was best not to break anybody's existing
> >> configuration. that seems insane now.
> > The configuration is *already* broken.  If you are depending upon
> > partially qualified names then they are a time bomb waiting to
> > happen.
> 
> you know what would be cool is if i still used MH and could usefully
> search my e-mail archives to prove that paul vixie and mark andrews just
> now (2014-09-11) repeated almost verbatim a debate we had some time in
> 1993 or 1994. it would not just be funny, but perhaps also depressing,
> and it would save time.
> 
> i believe that the next line of dialogue from this play is:
> 
> vixie: "your definition of 'break' is academic, mine is practical. right
> now the people who are using unqualified names are getting work done and
> they are not calling me to report bugs in the BIND resolver. if i make
> the change you are suggesting, they stop getting work done and they will
> look me up in WHOIS and call my phone."
> 
> like i said this seems insane now. mark was right, we should have broken
> the bad stuff as early as possible.

It isn't impossible.  Emit warnings whenever a partially qualified
name matches and syslog / EventLog it.

"WARNING: The partially qualified name '%s' resulted in a search
list match.  The use of partially qualified names is a unsafe
practice.  Fix your configuration to use the fully qualified name
'%s'."

Linux developers do stuff like this for deprecated system calls
where the user has zero control.  Here the user can correct the
configuration / behaviour.

Mark
-- 
Mark Andrews, ISC
1 Seymour St., Dundas Valley, NSW 2117, Australia
PHONE: +61 2 9871 4742                 INTERNET: marka at isc.org