The dreaded CNAME

[David Kirk]

> What is the proper method for setting up a basic domain as a CNAME
> record in bind 8.2.4?
>
> Prior to bind 8.2.3, I was using something similar to the following:
>
> foo.com.   IN   SOA  ns.mydomain.net. hostmaster.mydomain.net. (
>                 99072719 86400 7200 3600000 28800 )
> foo.com.        IN      NS      ns.mydomain.net.
> foo.com.        IN      NS      ns2.mydomain.net.
> foo.com.        IN      CNAME   bar.com.
>
> However, since 8.2.3, I can no longer get away with this.
>
> What is the proper manner for pointing foo.com to bar.com, as an alias
> or CNAME?
>
> (And before you ask why I don't just use A records--In my situation, it
> is not an option.)

You cannot CNAME a domain.  To do so violates the rule that CNAME
records shall have no other resource records applied to them; setting the
domain as a CNAME would nullify the SOA, NS, and any other records
you have set up for the domain.  I can't quote the RFC, but if you check
the bind-users archive, I am confident that you will find a plethora of
similar questions answered as I and Kevin Darcy have.

In short, if you can't use A records, you don't realistically have a lot of

other options.