[dns-operations] root? we don't need no stinkin' root!

[Paul Ebersman]

mallman> Setting aside history and how things have been done and why
mallman> (which I am happy to stipulate is rational)... At this point,
mallman> are there tangible benefits for getting information about the
mallman> TLD nameservers to resolvers as needed via a network service?

The biggest problem I see here is the legacy/long-tail problem. As of a
few years ago, I bumped into BIND 4 servers still active. Wouldn't be
shocked to hear they are still being used.

IPv4 reachable traditional DNS servers for some tiny group of antique
folks will be needed for years, even if we get 99+% of the world to some
new system.

Doesn't mean we shouldn't be thinking about a better way to do it for
that 99% though.

mallman> Are there fundamental problems that would arise in recursive
mallman> resolvers if the information about TLD nameservers was no
mallman> longer available via a network service, but instead had to come
mallman> from a file that was snarfed periodically?

/etc/hosts.txt via bittorrent instead of ftp from sri-nic? :)

The DNS is only billed as loosely coherent, so conceptually this could
work. But I'd have to be convinced it was enough better in terms of data
integrity, coherence and availability than the current DNS/DNSSEC to be
worth the pain of changing that much code on all those devices/servers.