RFC 1464 (rfc1464) - Page 3 of 4
Using the Domain Name System To Store Arbitrary String Attributes
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 1464 Storing Arbitrary Attributes in DNS May 1993
All whitespace in the attribute value is returned to the requestor
(it is up to the application to decide if it is significant.)
Examples
indicates a space character.
Attribute Attribute Internal Form External Form
Name Value (server to resolver) (TXT record)
color blue color=blue "color=blue"
equation a=4 equation=a=4 "equation=a=4"
a=a true a`=a=true "a`=a=true"
a\=a false a\`=a=false "a\\`=a=false"
= \= `==\= "`==\\="
string "Cat" string="Cat" "string=\"Cat\""
string2 `abc` string2=``abc`` "string2=``abc``"
novalue novalue= "novalue="
a b c d a b=c d "a b=c d"
abc 123 abc` =123 "abc` =123 "
3. Application Usage
The attributes can be accessed by the standard resolver library, but
it is recommended that a library routine designed specially for this
attribute format be used. Such a routine might provide an analogue
to gethostbyname:
getattributebyname(objectname, name of object
attributename, name of attribute
attributevalue, pointer to buffer
attributevaluelen) length of buffer
This routine would remove all quoting characters before returning the
information to the caller. A more complex routine could return
attributes with multiple values, or several different attributes.
4. Attribute Name Registration
To permit ease of interoperability and to reduce the chance of naming
conflicts, a registration process for well known attribute names
might be established. This could be a periodically updated list of
names and/or adherence to other name registration mechanisms such as
published object identifiers.
This paper does not address attribute name registration.
Rosenbaum