[dns-operations] Adding CNAME for the root domain issue

[Andrew Sullivan]

On Thu, Apr 28, 2016 at 07:31:15AM -0800, Fred Morris wrote:
> I thought this would work, too for some reason. But it doesn't. DNAME doesn't 
> work either.

No.  There really isn't a way to do it.

> CNAME makes the "zone apex" look like a zone, but referrals under it don't 
> work. DNAME makes things under the "zone apex" work, but the "apex" itself 
> doesn't work.. You can't have both.

i.e. "CNAME in the 'parent' zone" makes it look like a zone?  Right.
CNAME aliases the owner name.  What it says is that $owner is
_actually_ spelled $target.  It does not have anything to say about
names beneath $owner.  And of course it doesn't, once you think about
this, because an owner with a CNAME can't possibly be an apex.  So any
names beneath $owner are still just more names in the "parent" zone.
The only reason this looks a little strange is because we're used to
thinking of delegation-centric zones as having no "real" contents.  If
you do the same mental exercise inside example.com, the result is less
surprising.

A

-- 
Andrew Sullivan
ajs at anvilwalrusden.com