The RFC or the reason why you can not create CNAME record for the "root record"

[Barry Margolin]

In article <c41m02$2b1t$1 at sf1.isc.org>, list3 at wwwcrazy.com wrote:

> Why can you not create a CNAME record for the "root record".
> I'm not sure if I'm using the correct terminology.
> But basically I want to know why this command does not work:
> update add example.com. 10 IN CNAME www.mysecondexample.com.
> 
> I know it must be in an RFC somewhere but I can not see it anywhere.

RFC 1034 says: "The domain system provides such a feature [aliases] 
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."

Since a delegated zone name is required to have SOA and NS records, if 
it also had a CNAME record it would violate the restriction in the last 
sentence.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar at alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***