Subject: Re: in support of axfr-clarify

From: "D. J. Bernstein" <[email-masked]>
Date: 27 Nov 2002 17:41:04 -0000

Paul Vixie writes:
> bind has done wrong.

Interoperability is more important than your notions of what's ``right''
and ``wrong''---never mind the question of whether your notions are
actually supported by the Full Standard DNS specifications.

The ``axfr-clarify'' document claims to codify existing practice. The
problem is that what it actually codifies is BIND 9 practice. You admit
that this ``clarification'' imposes rules that are disobeyed by BIND 8,
for example, and by djbdns.

My web pages have said for three years that the DNS specifications are
horribly inadequate. This doesn't mean that I will support a dishonest,
clearly biased document that tries to force me to imitate BIND 9's silly
implementation decisions at the expense of my users.

You say that your optional IXFR extension doesn't work correctly unless
every DNS server on the planet works the way that BIND 9 does. You leap
to the conclusion that everybody else should change their software for
IXFR's benefit. Has it ever occurred to you to fix IXFR instead?

---D. J. Bernstein, Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics,
Statistics, and Computer Science, University of Illinois at Chicago