[bind10-dev] Convention when specifying address and port

[Stephen Morris]

A bit of a bikeshed discussion, but as raised at the teleconference
yesterday, should we have a standard for referring to address and port
combinations in messages and documentation?

Two forms currently in use in BIND 10 are:

address#port	192.0.2.1#53	2001:db8::1#53
address(port)	192.0.2.1(53)	2001:db8::1(53)

Also suggested is

[address]:port	[192.0.2.1]:53	[2001:db8::1]:53

A similar question arises when we need to output information about a
qname and qtype (in some cases qname, qtype and qclass).  A suggested
format, and one that has been used in BIND 10, is

qname/qtype		bind10.isc.org./NS
qname/qtype/qclass	bind10.isc.org./NS/IN

Another format used in a BIND 10 message is

qname/qtype in qclass class
			bind10.isc.org./NS in IN class


My own opinion is that it is important to have consistency: if nothing
else, it makes the software and documentation look more polished and
professional. As to which form, for address and port I believe that BIND
9 uses the address#port: I would be content to use that to avoid change.
For output of RR information, qname/qtype/qclass seems suitable.

Thoughts?


Stephen