I think we've already closed this topic for this revision, but
responding in any case, to revise the text if needed for the next
version..
On Fri, 14 May 2004, Kevin Darcy wrote:
> >I revised the text a bit to bring out this contradiction:
> >
> > <section title="Query Type 'ANY' and A/AAAA Records">
> > <t>QTYPE=* is typically only used for debugging or management
> >purposes; it is worth keeping in mind that QTYPE=* ("ANY" queries;
> >note that QTYPE=* is the technically correct, though oxymoronic, term)
> >literally return any available RRsets, not *all* available RRsets, as
> >only some of these may be present in the caches. Therefore, to get
> >both A and AAAA records reliably, two separate queries must be
> >made.</t>
> >
> >Does this look good?
>
> I think it's ill-advised to describe a particular resolver behavior in
> absolute terms when there is nothing in the specs (as far as I know) to
> prevent a future implementation from doing things differently, i.e. from
> always returning *all* of the RRsets in response to a QTYPE=* query.
> Perhaps it would be better to water down the description with "all known
> implementations as of this writing" or something like that...
QTYPE=* already returns all the RRsets _it knows_. The point is that
currently there is no mechanism to ensure that caches _do_ know all
the RRsets, so they cannot return all of them, and the user cannot
count on it.
If this is not sufficiently clear from the above, could you suggest
something else e.g., more text on caches to change that?
> P.S. In what way is QTYPE=* any more or less "oxymoronic" than QTYPE=ANY?
I think '*' is commonly treated as a wildcard, implying "ALL".
RFC1034 even says "all". "ANY" can mean less than all :). It's a
fine line..
--
Pekka Savola "You each name yourselves king, yet the
Netcore Oy kingdom bleeds."
Systems. Networks. Security. -- George R.R. Martin: A Clash of Kings
.
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