TXT record

[Jim Reid]

>>>>> "Kenneth" == Kenneth Porter <shiva at well.com> writes:

    Kenneth> Earlier on the list I saw someone mention that
    Kenneth> hand-maintained zone files had one benefit over DDNS:
    Kenneth> comments. I had seen the TXT records mentioned so this
    Kenneth> made me wonder if they were suitable for storing those
    Kenneth> comments in.

Not really, though it could be done. One problem is that each TXT
record will have a name, just like every other resource record in the
DNS. So unless you used standardised names for every potential
comment, you'd have to keep track of what names existed to "tag" each
of those comments. It would be hard to lookup some comment without
knowing its name. Keeping track of those comments and their names
would be even harder if they were being added and removed with DDNS.

Comments are usually only worthwhile when the zone file is maintained
by hand: "if the MX record below is changed in any way, the sky will
fall in"; "this name is needed till the end of the month for A User's
test of foobar"; that sort of thing. These reminders to the zone
administrator can't be applied so easily when a zone is under dynamic
control. The thing making the dynamic updates probably won't know
these comments exist or know their names for looking them up if they
were TXT records. Or figure out what those comments mean in respect
of the dynamic update they're about to do.