rfc1035.html

this gives details of the network programming

    |         |<--------------|          |<--------|--| Server |
    |         | user responses|          |responses|  |        |
    +---------+               +----------+         |  +--------+
                                |     A            |
                cache additions |     | references |
                                V     |            |
                              +----------+         |
                              |  Shared  |         |
                              | database |         |
                              +----------+         |
                                A     |            |
      +---------+     refreshes |     | references |
     /         /|               |     V            |
    +---------+ |             +----------+         |  +--------+
    |         | |             |          |responses|  |        |
    |         | |             |   Name   |---------|->|Foreign |
    |  Master |-------------->|  Server  |         |  |Resolver|
    |  files  | |             |          |<--------|--|        |
    |         |/              |          | queries |  +--------+
    +---------+               +----------+         |
                                A     |maintenance |  +--------+
                                |     +------------|->|        |
                                |      queries     |  |Foreign |
                                |                  |  |  Name  |
                                +------------------|--| Server |
                             maintenance responses |  +--------+

The shared database holds domain space data for the local name server
and resolver.  The contents of the shared database will typically be a
mixture of authoritative data maintained by the periodic refresh
operations of the name server and cached data from previous resolver
requests.  The structure of the domain data and the necessity for
synchronization between name servers and resolvers imply the general
characteristics of this database, but the actual format is up to the
local implementor.




Mockapetris                                                     [Page 6]
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Information flow can also be tailored so that a group of hosts act
together to optimize activities.  Sometimes this is done to offload less
capable hosts so that they do not have to implement a full resolver.
This can be appropriate for PCs or hosts which want to minimize the
amount of new network code which is required.  This scheme can also
allow a group of hosts can share a small number of caches rather than
maintaining a large number of separate caches, on the premise that the
centralized caches will have a higher hit ratio.  In either case,
resolvers are replaced with stub resolvers which act as front ends to
resolvers located in a recursive server in one or more name servers
known to perform that service:

                   Local Hosts                     |  Foreign
                                                   |
    +---------+                                    |
    |         | responses                          |
    | Stub    |&lt;--------------------+              |
    | Resolver|                     |              |
    |         |----------------+    |              |
    +---------+ recursive      |    |              |
                queries        |    |              |
                               V    |              |
    +---------+ recursive     +----------+         |  +--------+
    |         | queries       |          |queries  |  |        |
    | Stub    |--------------&gt;| Recursive|---------|-&gt;|Foreign |
    | Resolver|               | Server   |         |  |  Name  |
    |         |&lt;--------------|          |&lt;--------|--| Server |
    +---------+ responses     |          |responses|  |        |
                              +----------+         |  +--------+
                              |  Central |         |
                              |   cache  |         |
                              +----------+         |

In any case, note that domain components are always replicated for
reliability whenever possible.

2.3. Conventions

The domain system has several conventions dealing with low-level, but
fundamental, issues.  While the implementor is free to violate these
conventions WITHIN HIS OWN SYSTEM, he must observe these conventions in
ALL behavior observed from other hosts.

2.3.1. Preferred name syntax

The DNS specifications attempt to be as general as possible in the rules
for constructing domain names.  The idea is that the name of any
existing object can be expressed as a domain name with minimal changes.



Mockapetris                                                     [Page 7]
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However, when assigning a domain name for an object, the prudent user
will select a name which satisfies both the rules of the domain system
and any existing rules for the object, whether these rules are published
or implied by existing programs.

For example, when naming a mail domain, the user should satisfy both the
rules of this memo and those in <A href="../../../../rfc.net/rfc822.html">RFC-822</A>.  When creating a new host name,
the old rules for HOSTS.TXT should be followed.  This avoids problems
when old software is converted to use domain names.

The following syntax will result in fewer problems with many

applications that use domain names (e.g., mail, TELNET).

&lt;domain&gt; ::= &lt;subdomain&gt; | " "

&lt;subdomain&gt; ::= &lt;label&gt; | &lt;subdomain&gt; "." &lt;label&gt;

&lt;label&gt; ::= &lt;letter&gt; [ [ &lt;ldh-str&gt; ] &lt;let-dig&gt; ]

&lt;ldh-str&gt; ::= &lt;let-dig-hyp&gt; | &lt;let-dig-hyp&gt; &lt;ldh-str&gt;

&lt;let-dig-hyp&gt; ::= &lt;let-dig&gt; | "-"

&lt;let-dig&gt; ::= &lt;letter&gt; | &lt;digit&gt;

&lt;letter&gt; ::= any one of the 52 alphabetic characters A through Z in
upper case and a through z in lower case

&lt;digit&gt; ::= any one of the ten digits 0 through 9

Note that while upper and lower case letters are allowed in domain
names, no significance is attached to the case.  That is, two names with
the same spelling but different case are to be treated as if identical.

The labels must follow the rules for ARPANET host names.  They must
start with a letter, end with a letter or digit, and have as interior
characters only letters, digits, and hyphen.  There are also some
restrictions on the length.  Labels must be 63 characters or less.

For example, the following strings identify hosts in the Internet:

A.ISI.EDU XX.LCS.MIT.EDU SRI-NIC.ARPA

2.3.2. Data Transmission Order

The order of transmission of the header and data described in this
document is resolved to the octet level.  Whenever a diagram shows a



Mockapetris                                                     [Page 8]
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group of octets, the order of transmission of those octets is the normal
order in which they are read in English.  For example, in the following
diagram, the octets are transmitted in the order they are numbered.

     0                   1
     0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |       1       |       2       |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |       3       |       4       |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |       5       |       6       |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Whenever an octet represents a numeric quantity, the left most bit in
the diagram is the high order or most significant bit.  That is, the bit
labeled 0 is the most significant bit.  For example, the following
diagram represents the value 170 (decimal).

     0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0|
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Similarly, whenever a multi-octet field represents a numeric quantity
the left most bit of the whole field is the most significant bit.  When
a multi-octet quantity is transmitted the most significant octet is
transmitted first.

2.3.3. Character Case

For all parts of the DNS that are part of the official protocol, all
comparisons between character strings (e.g., labels, domain names, etc.)
are done in a case-insensitive manner.  At present, this rule is in
force throughout the domain system without exception.  However, future
additions beyond current usage may need to use the full binary octet
capabilities in names, so attempts to store domain names in 7-bit ASCII
or use of special bytes to terminate labels, etc., should be avoided.

When data enters the domain system, its original case should be
preserved whenever possible.  In certain circumstances this cannot be
done.  For example, if two RRs are stored in a database, one at x.y and
one at X.Y, they are actually stored at the same place in the database,
and hence only one casing would be preserved.  The basic rule is that
case can be discarded only when data is used to define structure in a
database, and two names are identical when compared in a case
insensitive manner.




Mockapetris                                                     [Page 9]
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Loss of case sensitive data must be minimized.  Thus while data for x.y
and X.Y may both be stored under a single location x.y or X.Y, data for
a.x and B.X would never be stored under A.x, A.X, b.x, or b.X.  In
general, this preserves the case of the first label of a domain name,
but forces standardization of interior node labels.

Systems administrators who enter data into the domain database should
take care to represent the data they supply to the domain system in a
case-consistent manner if their system is case-sensitive.  The data
distribution system in the domain system will ensure that consistent
representations are preserved.

2.3.4. Size limits

Various objects and parameters in the DNS have size limits.  They are
listed below.  Some could be easily changed, others are more
fundamental.

labels          63 octets or less

names           255 octets or less

TTL             positive values of a signed 32 bit number.

UDP messages    512 octets or less

3. DOMAIN NAME SPACE AND RR DEFINITIONS

3.1. Name space definitions

Domain names in messages are expressed in terms of a sequence of labels.
Each label is represented as a one octet length field followed by that
number of octets.  Since every domain name ends with the null label of
the root, a domain name is terminated by a length byte of zero.  The
high order two bits of every length octet must be zero, and the
remaining six bits of the length field limit the label to 63 octets or
less.

To simplify implementations, the total length of a domain name (i.e.,
label octets and label length octets) is restricted to 255 octets or
less.

Although labels can contain any 8 bit values in octets that make up a
label, it is strongly recommended that labels follow the preferred
syntax described elsewhere in this memo, which is compatible with
existing host naming conventions.  Name servers and resolvers must
compare labels in a case-insensitive manner (i.e., A=a), assuming ASCII
with zero parity.  Non-alphabetic codes must match exactly.



Mockapetris                                                    [Page 10]
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3.2. RR definitions

3.2.1. Format

All RRs have the same top level format shown below:

                                    1  1  1  1  1  1
      0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  0  1  2  3  4  5
    +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
    |                                               |
    /                                               /
    /                      NAME                     /
    |                                               |
    +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
    |                      TYPE                     |
    +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
    |                     CLASS                     |
    +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
    |                      TTL                      |
    |                                               |
    +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
    |                   RDLENGTH                    |
    +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--|
    /                     RDATA                     /
    /                                               /
    +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+


where:

NAME            an owner name, i.e., the name of the node to which this
                resource record pertains.

TYPE            two octets containing one of the RR TYPE codes.

CLASS           two octets containing one of the RR CLASS codes.