[bind10-dev] what to do with src/bin/host ?

[Jeremy C. Reed]

src/bin/host was my experiment to practice C++.

The initial goal was to be a clone of the host(1) tool (that is why I 
gave it the same name). Same command-line usage and near identical 
output so it can be used in historical scripts as-is.

It does have a new option now not in host(1) and adding the TSIG 
capability will also change it more from host(1).

If we want to make a powerful and useful DNS diagnostics tool maybe we 
should make a plan and requirements document.

But if we want an ah-hoc tool, maybe src/bin/host is fine -- but since I 
assume it will diverge from host(1) then maybe it should be renamed.

Note that it was never included in any snapshot release. But it has 
always been part of the source repo builds.

I plan to work on the manual page.

Anyways, this is prompted by ticket #856 (add ability to send TSIG'ed 
query to src/bin/host) and also I had done minor work on it some months 
ago and again recently. I put that into jreed-host branch. It needs to 
be pushed into master. Please see ticket #872.

(It still has other problems like core dumping with unknown class; this 
is a known issue, but maybe a specific ticket for libdns++ is needed for 
that.)

Also note that src/bin/host has no tests. If it is to be formal 
installed tool, then maybe it should have tests too. But if its purpose 
is for testing, then maybe we don't need unit-tests for it, but should 
start using it (automated) for functional testing of BIND 10.

  Jeremy C. Reed
  ISC