Re: Operational issues

[Randy Bush <randy@psg.com>]

> 2.4 Operational Issues
>      Zone files should remain easily editable.
> This is not a requirement: zone files are UI for administration. Some
> DNS systems don't rely on zone files. We should not start getting into
> admin UI here.

strangely, master files were actually specified in rfc 103[3-5], despite
their not really being part of an on-the-wire protocol.  i doubt it is by
accident that the 1035 specification is carefully weasel-worded to not
require them.

unfortunately, 1034 seems to go over the line when it says

   The standard format of master files allows them to be exchanged between
   hosts (via FTP, mail, or some other mechanism)

with "the standard format for master files," and suggesting that they can
be universally ftpd etc. around the net being rather too prescriptive.

perhaps the next base dns clarifications document, 2181-bis, should drive
a nail in this one and make clear that master files are a notational
convention not an implementation requirement.

randy