[bind10-dev] Non-absolute names for $ORIGIN

[Peter Koch]

On Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 01:32:43PM -0800, JINMEI Tatuya / ?$B?@L at C#:H wrote:

> > >  * Consider the name absolute, even if it doesn't end with dot.
> > 
> > please don't, it would violate RFC 1034, section 5.
> > 
> > >  * Fail if we see a name that does not end with dot.
> > 
> > That's not justified by RFC 1034, either.
> 
> I guess you mean RFC1035 for both of the above, right? (Section 5 of

absoluteley, apologies for pointing to the wrong chapter/verse, which
shouldn't happen.

> RFC1034 is about resolvers).  Assuming so, which part of the RFC are
> you referring to?
> 
> This one,
> 
>     $ORIGIN <domain-name> [<comment>]

Yes, that's the definition on top of page 34.
"<domain-name>" has two explanations/definitions:

Section 3.3, bottom of page 13:

	<domain-name> is a domain name represented as a series of labels, and
	terminated by a label with zero length.  <character-string> is a single
	length octet followed by that number of characters.  <character-string>
	is treated as binary information, and can be up to 256 characters in
	length (including the length octet).

Now, this obviously refers to what we call wire format these days.
Section 5, bottom of page 34 is in closer context:

	<domain-name>s make up a large share of the data in the master file.
	The labels in the domain name are expressed as character strings and
	separated by dots.  Quoting conventions allow arbitrary characters to be
	stored in domain names.  Domain names that end in a dot are called
	absolute, and are taken as complete.  Domain names which do not end in a
	dot are called relative; the actual domain name is the concatenation of
	the relative part with an origin specified in a $ORIGIN, $INCLUDE, or as
	an argument to the master file loading routine.  A relative name is an
	error when no origin is available.

Regards,
  Peter