rfc1034.html

this gives details of the network programming

<domain> ::= <subdomain> | " "

<subdomain> ::= <label> | <subdomain> "." <label>

<label> ::= <letter> [ [ <ldh-str> ] <let-dig> ]

<ldh-str> ::= <let-dig-hyp> | <let-dig-hyp> <ldh-str>

<let-dig-hyp> ::= <let-dig> | "-"

<let-dig> ::= <letter> | <digit>

<letter> ::= any one of the 52 alphabetic characters A through Z in
upper case and a through z in lower case

<digit> ::= 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

3.6. Resource Records

A domain name identifies a node.  Each node has a set of resource



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information, which may be empty.  The set of resource information
associated with a particular name is composed of separate resource
records (RRs).  The order of RRs in a set is not significant, and need
not be preserved by name servers, resolvers, or other parts of the DNS.

When we talk about a specific RR, we assume it has the following:

owner           which is the domain name where the RR is found.

type            which is an encoded 16 bit value that specifies the type
                of the resource in this resource record.  Types refer to
                abstract resources.

                This memo uses the following types:

                A               a host address

                CNAME           identifies the canonical name of an
                                alias

                HINFO           identifies the CPU and OS used by a host

                MX              identifies a mail exchange for the
                                domain.  See [<A href="../../../../rfc.net/rfc974.html">RFC-974</A> for details.

                NS
                the authoritative name server for the domain

                PTR
                a pointer to another part of the domain name space

                SOA
                identifies the start of a zone of authority]

class           which is an encoded 16 bit value which identifies a
                protocol family or instance of a protocol.

                This memo uses the following classes:

                IN              the Internet system

                CH              the Chaos system

TTL             which is the time to live of the RR.  This field is a 32
                bit integer in units of seconds, an is primarily used by
                resolvers when they cache RRs.  The TTL describes how
                long a RR can be cached before it should be discarded.




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RDATA           which is the type and sometimes class dependent data
                which describes the resource:

                A               For the IN class, a 32 bit IP address

                                For the CH class, a domain name followed
                                by a 16 bit octal Chaos address.

                CNAME           a domain name.

                MX              a 16 bit preference value (lower is
                                better) followed by a host name willing
                                to act as a mail exchange for the owner
                                domain.

                NS              a host name.

                PTR             a domain name.

                SOA             several fields.

The owner name is often implicit, rather than forming an integral part
of the RR.  For example, many name servers internally form tree or hash
structures for the name space, and chain RRs off nodes.  The remaining
RR parts are the fixed header (type, class, TTL) which is consistent for
all RRs, and a variable part (RDATA) that fits the needs of the resource
being described.

The meaning of the TTL field is a time limit on how long an RR can be
kept in a cache.  This limit does not apply to authoritative data in
zones; it is also timed out, but by the refreshing policies for the
zone.  The TTL is assigned by the administrator for the zone where the
data originates.  While short TTLs can be used to minimize caching, and
a zero TTL prohibits caching, the realities of Internet performance
suggest that these times should be on the order of days for the typical
host.  If a change can be anticipated, the TTL can be reduced prior to
the change to minimize inconsistency during the change, and then
increased back to its former value following the change.

The data in the RDATA section of RRs is carried as a combination of
binary strings and domain names.  The domain names are frequently used
as "pointers" to other data in the DNS.

3.6.1. Textual expression of RRs

RRs are represented in binary form in the packets of the DNS protocol,
and are usually represented in highly encoded form when stored in a name
server or resolver.  In this memo, we adopt a style similar to that used



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in master files in order to show the contents of RRs.  In this format,
most RRs are shown on a single line, although continuation lines are
possible using parentheses.

The start of the line gives the owner of the RR.  If a line begins with
a blank, then the owner is assumed to be the same as that of the
previous RR.  Blank lines are often included for readability.

Following the owner, we list the TTL, type, and class of the RR.  Class
and type use the mnemonics defined above, and TTL is an integer before
the type field.  In order to avoid ambiguity in parsing, type and class
mnemonics are disjoint, TTLs are integers, and the type mnemonic is
always last. The IN class and TTL values are often omitted from examples
in the interests of clarity.

The resource data or RDATA section of the RR are given using knowledge
of the typical representation for the data.

For example, we might show the RRs carried in a message as:

    ISI.EDU.        MX      10 VENERA.ISI.EDU.
                    MX      10 VAXA.ISI.EDU.
    VENERA.ISI.EDU. A       128.9.0.32
                    A       10.1.0.52
    VAXA.ISI.EDU.   A       10.2.0.27
                    A       128.9.0.33

The MX RRs have an RDATA section which consists of a 16 bit number
followed by a domain name.  The address RRs use a standard IP address
format to contain a 32 bit internet address.

This example shows six RRs, with two RRs at each of three domain names.

Similarly we might see:

    XX.LCS.MIT.EDU. IN      A       10.0.0.44
                    CH      A       MIT.EDU. 2420

This example shows two addresses for XX.LCS.MIT.EDU, each of a different
class.

3.6.2. Aliases and canonical names

In existing systems, hosts and other resources often have several names
that identify the same resource.  For example, the names C.ISI.EDU and
USC-ISIC.ARPA both identify the same host.  Similarly, in the case of
mailboxes, many organizations provide many names that actually go to the
same mailbox; for example [e-mail], [e-mail],



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and [e-mail] all go to the same mailbox (although the mechanism
behind this is somewhat complicated).

Most of these systems have a notion that one of the equivalent set of
names is the canonical or primary name and all others are aliases.

The domain system provides such a feature using the canonical name
(CNAME) RR.  A CNAME RR identifies its owner name as an alias, and
specifies the corresponding canonical name in the RDATA section of the
RR.  If a CNAME RR is present at a node, no other data should be
present; this ensures that the data for a canonical name and its aliases
cannot be different.  This rule also insures that a cached CNAME can be
used without checking with an authoritative server for other RR types.

CNAME RRs cause special action in DNS software.  When a name server
fails to find a desired RR in the resource set associated with the
domain name, it checks to see if the resource set consists of a CNAME
record with a matching class.  If so, the name server includes the CNAME
record in the response and restarts the query at the domain name
specified in the data field of the CNAME record.  The one exception to
this rule is that queries which match the CNAME type are not restarted.

For example, suppose a name server was processing a query with for USC-
ISIC.ARPA, asking for type A information, and had the following resource
records:

    USC-ISIC.ARPA   IN      CNAME   C.ISI.EDU

    C.ISI.EDU       IN      A       10.0.0.52

Both of these RRs would be returned in the response to the type A query,
while a type CNAME or * query should return just the CNAME.

Domain names in RRs which point at another name should always point at
the primary name and not the alias.  This avoids extra indirections in
accessing information.  For example, the address to name RR for the
above host should be:

    52.0.0.10.IN-ADDR.ARPA  IN      PTR     C.ISI.EDU

rather than pointing at USC-ISIC.ARPA.  Of course, by the robustness
principle, domain software should not fail when presented with CNAME
chains or loops; CNAME chains should be followed and CNAME loops
signalled as an error.

3.7. Queries

Queries are messages which may be sent to a name server to provoke a



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response.  In the Internet, queries are carried in UDP datagrams or over
TCP connections.  The response by the name server either answers the
question posed in the query, refers the requester to another set of name
servers, or signals some error condition.

In general, the user does not generate queries directly, but instead
makes a request to a resolver which in turn sends one or more queries to
name servers and deals with the error conditions and referrals that may
result.  Of course, the possible questions which can be asked in a query
does shape the kind of service a resolver can provide.

DNS queries and responses are carried in a standard message format.  The
message format has a header containing a number of fixed fields which
are always present, and four sections which carry query parameters and
RRs.

The most important field in the header is a four bit field called an
opcode which separates different queries.  Of the possible 16 values,
one (standard query) is part of the official protocol, two (inverse
query and status query) are options, one (completion) is obsolete, and
the rest are unassigned.

The four sections are:

Question        Carries the query name and other query parameters.

Answer          Carries RRs which directly answer the query.

Authority       Carries RRs which describe other authoritative servers.