Hi all, I was wondering if there are currently any Gemini clients that check SRV records instead of connecting to the default port. Or if there are any plans to include this in the spec. I think it is a good way to add Gemini support to domains without requiring the Gemini server to be installed on the same machine as other service. I think XMPP for example has benefited a lot from this. -- Leo
Hello! DNS SRV records are pretty interesting, but in my opinion this would unnecessarily complicate the spec. Like HTTP, if you want to connect to a non-default port you can just specify it in the URL. If you want to run the gemini server on a different machine, there's lots of ways to redirect that, but the simplest would be having a `gem.domain.tld` subdomain for your domain name. makeworld > Hi all, > I was wondering if there are currently any Gemini clients that check SRV > records instead of connecting to the default port. > > Or if there are any plans to include this in the spec. > > I think it is a good way to add Gemini support to domains without > requiring the Gemini server to be installed on the same machine as other > service. I think XMPP for example has benefited a lot from this. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------- > > Leo
On Fri, May 15, 2020 at 05:40:58PM +0000, colecmac at protonmail.com wrote: > Hello! > > DNS SRV records are pretty interesting, but in my opinion this would > unnecessarily complicate the spec. I don't think this would necessarily need to clutter up the main spec - this is a "companion spec" kind of thing, like robots.txt or other things like that. Ideas for those are kind of piling up, it's probably high time to do some documenting and delegating... Cheers, Solderpunk
It was thus said that the Great solderpunk once stated: > On Fri, May 15, 2020 at 05:40:58PM +0000, colecmac at protonmail.com wrote: > > Hello! > > > > DNS SRV records are pretty interesting, but in my opinion this would > > unnecessarily complicate the spec. > > I don't think this would necessarily need to clutter up the main spec - > this is a "companion spec" kind of thing, like robots.txt or other > things like that. Kind of. One issue is: given the URL: gemini://gemini.example.com/ does that mean a client has to look up the SRV RR for 'gemini.example.com' before defaulting to port 1965? Also, it's not like there can only be one SRV RR for a given service. Hypothetically, a client could get this back: P W port host ------------------------------------------------------------- _gemini._tcp.example.net. IN SRV 10 1 1965 backupserver3.example.net. IN SRV 0 0 1965 server3.example.net. IN SRV 0 5000 1965 server1.example.net. IN SRV 10 2 1966 backupserver2.example.net. IN SRV 10 3 1967 backupserver1.example.net. IN SRV 5 0 1965 redundant1.example.net. IN SRV 0 1000 1965 server2.example.net. IN SRV 0 5000 5691 server3.example.net. IN SRV 5 0 1965 redundant2.example.net. IN SRV 5 0 2020 redundant3.example.net. P = priority - lower values first W = weight - higher values first A client would need to sort the list based upon priority (lower first), then by weight (higher first), then pick a server at random among those with the same priority and weight. So according to this list, a client would have to first attempt to contact pick one at random server1.example.net:1965 server3.example.net:6591 and last backupserver3.example.net:1965 It's all spelled out in RFC-2782 [1]. Is this a pathological case? Yes. Will most SRV records have one entry? Probably, but that's a gut feeling, I don't have actual numbers to look at. And unlike looking up an A or AA RR with the "standard" POSIX function getaddrinfo(), there is not simple API that I am aware of for the SRV RR. Also, an SRV RR query might require a second A/AAAA RR lookup [2]. -spc (Just some things to keep in mind ... ) [1] Shameless plug---I wote a DNS library in C: https://github.com/spc476/SPCDNS Yeah, that's why I know this stuff. [2] Depends upon the DNS server. Some will return the answer along with additional records to avoid further queries, some won't.
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