My reading of RFC 1035 is that DNS name "compression" via "pointers" is restricted to name strictly earlier in the DNS message:
4.1.4. Message compression In order to reduce the size of messages, the domain system utilizes a compression scheme which eliminates the repetition of domain names in a message. In this scheme, an entire domain name or a list of labels at the end of a domain name is replaced with a pointer to a prior occurance --------------- of the same name. And yet, here and there I see mention of having to take care to avoid "loops", but loops are impossible in a monotone strictly decreasing sequence. Is there a later RFC that relaxes the constraint and allows pointers to names later in the message? I'm having a bit of trouble finding the later text... Secondarily, can the pointer point to some odd-ball location earlier in the message that is not semantically a label in its original context, but just happens to carry data that decodes as the desired label? Or, are pointers only valid to prior locations that are corresponding labels in their original context? -- Viktor. _______________________________________________ DNSOP mailing list DNSOP@ietf.org https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/dnsop