CNAME Error

[Yann Debonne]

Thank you all so much for the info.  That was definitely the problem.  And 
Jim, because of what you wrote below, I now know why I never had this 
problem before.  This is the first time that I have not explicitly use 
fully qualified, dot-terminated domain names throughout the zone file.

So, just for the record, what if I WANT to place the TXT and RP records at 
the bottom of the file with CNAME options?  Is there any syntax that can be 
put before the TXT and RP records so I can drop them to the bottom?  Or is 
my only option to use fully qualified, dot-terminated domain names 
throughout the zone file?

Thanks,

y

--On Monday, July 12, 2004 12:05 PM +0100 Jim Reid <jim at rfc1035.com> wrote:

>>>>>> "Gabriele" == Gabriele Piroddi <gabrielepiroddi at yahoo.it> writes:
>
>     Gabriele> The class "IN" is missing.  So, the two record shoud be:
>
>     Gabriele> www IN CNAME dovecanyontech.com.
>     Gabriele> ftp IN CNAME dovecanyontech.com.
>
> Nope. The spec says that when the name, class, type or TTL for some RR
> are missing, their values are inherited from the last RR that defined
> them. So the missing "IN" class doesn't matter as it was defined in
> earlier records in the zone file.
>
> The problem with the OP's zone is not the CNAMEs. It's the TXT and RP
> records which follow them.
>
> These have the name ftp.whatever-the-domain-is, which is inherited
> from the last RR to set the domain name: the CNAME for ftp. So the TXT
> and RP records are for ftp.whatever-the-domain-is rather than the
> actual domain name, which was probably what was intended. However
> since ftp.whatever-the-domain-is already exists as a CNAME, it cannot
> exist as any other record type. That means these TXT and RP records
> are illegal and that's why the zone gets rejected. If they'd been
> placed before the CNAME entries, all would have been well.
>
> The OP wouldn't have had this problem if he/she explicitly used fully
> qualified, dot-terminated domain names throughout the zone file. This
> avoids these sorts of problems when an oversight with an earlier entry
> in the zone file changes the semantics of later RRs in the file.
>
>     >> www            CNAME   dovecanyontech.com.
>     >> ftp            CNAME   dovecanyontech.com.
>     >>
>     >>                IN      TXT     "Location: Yann's Office"
>     >>                IN      RP      jim.dovecanyontech.com. .