forward_types() and reverse_types() conflicts with RFC 2317

[monachus]

It's not really a bug, but more of a discussion item based on something I encountered yesterday.  Most ISPs will follow RFC 2317 for classless in-addr.arpa delegation, and if they follow it according to Section 4, NicTool works great.  If, however, they follow the alternative method in Section 5.2, it won't work.  NicTool tries to be helpful by limiting forward zones to forward record types and reverse zones to reverse record types.  However, for RFC 2317 5.2 to work, we have to put the PTR records in a forward zone, which NicTool won't allow.

I understand (and like) the helpfulness, but I had to patch my source with the following to get the PTRs in the forward domain in order to do in-addr.arpa delegation with Cogent.  Perhaps the helpfulness could be a configuration option, or even applicable by zone? 

Here's my patch to zone.cgi, which only changes NicTool for forward zones.  There's no reason for anyone to be putting A records into in-addr.arpa zones, so I left that section alone.

Code Select Expand


--- NicToolClient-2.07/htdocs/zone.cgi.orig 2009-09-10 07:20:34.352386253 -0400
+++ NicToolClient-2.07/htdocs/zone.cgi 2009-09-10 07:21:40.328882375 -0400
@@ -989,8 +989,9 @@
         $type_labels = $nt_obj->rr_reverse_types();
     }
     else {
-        $type_values = [ sort keys %{ $nt_obj->rr_forward_types() } ];
-        $type_labels = $nt_obj->rr_forward_types();
+        my %types = ( %{$nt_obj->rr_forward_types()}, %{$nt_obj->rr_reverse_types()} );
+        $type_values = [ sort keys %types ];
+        $type_labels = \%types;
     }

     #    use Data::Dumper;


Respectfully,

Adrian Goins - President / CEO
Arces Network, LLC

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[matt]

Oddly enough, there actually is legit reasons to put A records in reverse zones:

$ dig +short 227.250.223.67.in-addr.arpa.
67.223.250.227
$ dig +short -x 67.223.250.227
227.250.223.67.in-addr.arpa.

That works because I have an A record in the 250.223.67.in-addr.arpa. But I always create those records using the API, because I'm creating one record per IP address. In 'normal' usage, that really doesn't ever happen.

However, I do agree that it should be a configurable option. Perhaps a Javascript option that is user selectable. So, if the zone happens to a a reverse zone (/.in-addr.arpa$/, present the reverse list, but also include an option to select 'see less common record types'.