Subject: I-D ACTION:draft-ietf-dnsext-insensitive-00.txt

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 07:53:14 -0500

A New Internet-Draft is available from the on-line Internet-Drafts directories.
This draft is a work item of the DNS Extensions Working Group of the IETF.

	Title		: Domain Name System (DNS) Case Insensitivity 
                          Clarification
	Author(s)	: D. Eastlake
	Filename	: draft-ietf-dnsext-insensitive-00.txt
	Pages		: 8
	Date		: 2003-1-29
	
Domain Name System (DNS) names are 'case insensitive'. This document
explains exactly what that means and provides a clear specification
of the rules. This clarification should not have any interoperability
consequences.

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---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 11:27:03 -0600

"There is one additional instance of note, which relfects the general..."
(pg 6 para 2 line 1 (last para of section 4))  We should probably relfect
on this awhile more lest the world think we have no spell checkers.

Dan

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                      01/30/2003 06:53 AM                                                                     
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A New Internet-Draft is available from the on-line Internet-Drafts
directories.
This draft is a work item of the DNS Extensions Working Group of the IETF.

             Title                         : Domain Name System (DNS) Case
Insensitivity
                          Clarification
             Author(s)         : D. Eastlake
             Filename          : draft-ietf-dnsext-insensitive-00.txt
             Pages                         : 8
             Date                    : 2003-1-29

Internet-Drafts are also available by anonymous FTP. Login with the
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---

From: Scott Seligman <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 16:05:39 -0800

>A period can also be protected from
>recognition as a separator, so that it will be treated as a normal
>label character, by preceeding it with a back-slash.

In at least some common contexts, a backslash preceding any non-digit
octet -- not just a period -- is interpreted as an escape character.
This is most useful for embedding a backslash itself within a label
("ab\\cd" being the 5-octet label with a single backslash in the middle).
A superfluous backslash is effectively ignored ("ab\de" represents the 
same label as "abde").

None of this really needs to be discussed to nail down the rules
regarding case-sensitivity.  But if it is going to be discussed, this
should be taken into account.

Scott Seligman
Java Software Engineering
Sun Microsystems

---

From: Donald Eastlake 3rd <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 21:29:11 -0500 (EST)

The question is what do DNS Master File parsers and user interfaces do? 
I'm not included to specify a wider applicability of \ without some 
re-assurance from implementers.

Thanks,
Donald
======================================================================
 Donald E. Eastlake 3rd                       [email-masked]
 155 Beaver Street              +1-508-634-2066(h) +1-508-851-8280(w)
 Milford, MA 01757 USA                   [email-masked]

On Thu, 30 Jan 2003, Scott Seligman wrote:

> Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 16:05:39 -0800
> From: Scott Seligman <[email-masked]>
> To: [email-masked]
> Subject: Re: I-D ACTION:draft-ietf-dnsext-insensitive-00.txt
> 
> Scott Seligman Java Software Engineering Sun Microsystems
>

---

From: Scott Seligman <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 18:32:58 -0800

>The question is what do DNS Master File parsers and user interfaces do? 

Right.  That's what I'm talking about.  BIND 8 for instance.

Scott Seligman

---

From: Donald Eastlake 3rd <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 21:57:22 -0500 (EST)

So your assertion is that every version of BIND and all versions of 
Microsoft DNS code and any other DNS code I'm overlooking all behave as 
your specify? Your original message says "some common contexts", not 
"all contexts" or even "all DNS Master File parsers and UIs".

Thanks,
Donald

On Thu, 30 Jan 2003, Scott Seligman wrote:

> Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 18:32:58 -0800
> To: Donald Eastlake 3rd <[email-masked]>
> Cc: [email-masked]

---

From: Scott Seligman <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 02:24:12 -0800

>your specify? 

Certainly not.  I used the words "some" and "common", not "all".

The paragraph purports to describe "_The_ typographic convention"
(emphasis added) for labels.  What it describes, however, differs
from *some* common practice.  If the paragraph had instead begun:
"One of the possible typographic conventions" or something along
those lines, that would be different.

It's probably best to avoid this whole can of worms here and not
mention such "typographic conventions" at all.  The case sensitivity
rules can be precisely specified without this.

Scott Seligman

---

From: Donald Eastlake 3rd <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 08:37:49 -0500 (EST)

The rule is included because the format of Master Files is part of the 
DNS standard. I'll try to take your comments into account in updating 
the draft...n

Thanks,
Donald

On Fri, 31 Jan 2003, Scott Seligman wrote:

> Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 02:24:12 -0800

---

From: Scott Seligman <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 10:23:25 -0800

>the draft.

You may wish to use this wording from RFC 1035 itself:

\X              where X is any character other than a digit (0-9), is
                used to quote that character so that its special meaning
                does not apply.  For example, "\." can be used to place
                a dot character in a label.

Scott Seligman