Message for Bind-users

[McNair, Dan]

Correct me if I am wrong, but the underscore is not a legal character in any domain name.  This is not a limitation of BIND, it is a restriction imposed by the domain name standard.  My guess is that there are both practical and historical reasons for the restriction.

Here is an excerpt from RFC1034 which specifies that only alphabetical characters (letters), digits, and the "-" (hyphen) are legal in domain names.

So I don't think that what you want is possible.  Hope this helps.

--Dan

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3.5. Preferred name syntax

The DNS specifications attempt to be as general as possible in the rules



Mockapetris                                                    [Page 10]

RFC 1034             Domain Concepts and Facilities        November 1987


for constructing domain names.  The idea is that the name of any
existing object can be expressed as a domain name with minimal changes.
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 RFC-822.  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).

<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.





-----Original Message-----
From: Brij.Dhadwal [mailto:Brij.Dhadwal at bmo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 13, 2000 7:16 AM
To: bind-users
Subject: Message for Bind-users


Hi Everyone,

My name is Brij Dhadwal.

I am in the process of evaluating open DNS on NT, other than in Unix. My
interest is sparked on the version 4.9.5 of BIND (for Windows NT 4.0 srpk
4) and am interested. After going through the documents provided and
testing the same in my lab, I am very impressed with the functioning of
the software.  One of the main reasons to use this version of DNS is that
it is an open system and allows me to program the databases according to
my needs.

I am not clear on the ascept of exclusions from the list of characters
written in the databases. The character "_" (underscore) is not readily
accepted as a DNS name and I could not find the syntax for including "_"
as an option in the database as a DNS name character.

Eg.
qs_server_name  IN      A       192.168.11.121

The name qs_server_name not only generates errors in the event viewer, but
also I cannot resolve the name. Unfortunately the use of names of the
above example type is mandatory to my technical and business needs.

I would request you to please help me out with the following. If not, you
can please point me to the right source or the right program version to do
the job. My limitations are to use DNS program on NT, but not to use DNS
for NT which comes bundled together.

Thank you in anticipation.

_________________________________________________________________________
Brij Dhadwal, 
Technology Support - MasterCard - EBS
Bank of Montreal, 3300 Bloor Street West,
West Tower 14th Floor, MGC, Toronto M8X 2X2.
Tel : (416) 232 8307   Fax : [416] 232 8562   Pager : [416] 664 8570

E-mail : brij.dhadwal at bmo.com