maradns-1.2.12.08 can't resolve some names

[Sam Trenholme]

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

I need to give you some of MaraDNS' history and current development so
you can understand what is going on.

Back in 2001, I decided that MaraDNS really ought to have recursive
DNS resolution, since this was a feature a DNS server should have.
So, in the fall of 2001 I wrote all of this code and then Franky and
myself did an extensive SQA process to stabilize the code and remove
memory leaks from it.

The code was quickly written, and resolved most name on the internet
decently, but some things were tacked on, such as CNAME resolution.
The plan was to rewrite the recursive code later on.

Well, being an open source project, no one paid me to do this
development, so I made other things in life a higher priority, such as
going to the gym, graduating with a degree in computational
linguistics magna cum luade, going to Mexico, getting a job and a
girlfriend down here, etc.

Because of this, the rewrite of the recursive resolver didn't start
until late 2007.  At the end of 2007 I was able to devote more
personal time to this resolver, and had a basic non-recursive DNS
cache done by the end of 2007.

Life happened in 2008, and this recursive code (code named Deadwood)
was on worked on a little this year, but I started using this code for
my personal internet use and fixed some bugs I found during this use.

At the end of 2008, I was in a position in my personal life where I
was able to devote time to this code again, and finally released a
stable version of this code a week ago.  The code is in a lot of ways
better than the original MaraDNS resolver, but doesn't have some
features MaraDNS' resolver has, notably it need to use another
recursive DNS server to process queries.

This Deadwood code will eventually become MaraDNS' next-generation
resolver.  Right now, recursive resolution just isn't a priority for
me and I'm working on other features, such as bona fide WIndows
support and making the code modular so that one can make the code
bigger or smaller depending on what features are needed.

Once I start work on Deadwood's recursive code (no, there is no
expected timeline) I will ask people to help me beta-test this code so
that we don't have issues like this come up.

Basically, there was a window in late 2001 where I paid serious
attention to "this obscure site doesn't resolve with MaraDNS" bugs;
however the code is written in such a way I had to make a lot of those
sites WONTFIX.

However, if someone is willing to sponsor MaraDNS development, I am
willing to change MaraDNS' roadmap to accommodate the needs of my
sponsor.  For example, XeroBank recently sponsored adding to MaraDNS
the ability to give a synthetic IP when it is impossible to resolve a
given host name, or when a given host name does not exist.

That said, I do feel a certain responsibility to fix critical (read:
*critical*) bugs in MaraDNS.  As recently as 2006, I made some changes
to MaraDNS code to make it possible for MaraDNS to resolve a popular
web site (microsoft.com).

My experience is that when MaraDNS can't resolve a host at all, it's
probably because there's something broken with the domain.

> (1) Sometimes some hosts, for example, www.google.de or cgi.ebay.de or
> some other hosts can't be resolved. But on second o third attemt the
> resolution working. As I can see, most (or all?) of these hosts are
> CNAMEs.

Well, they resolve, so I don't consider this a serious as an issue
where the host name doesn't resolve at all.  However, I will look at
these two host names later on this week, since they are both "Alexa
top 500" sites (google.de is number 12 on the global Alexa list); if I
can demonstrate that MaraDNS can resolve these sites (albeit with
difficulty) I will close this bug as WONTFIX (but if you want to talk
about sponsoring MaraDNS to fix this bug, we can talk about money in
private email).

> (2) One host can't be resolved at all: russland-buecher.ru.

This site's Alexa rank is somewhere around 1,800,000, so I don't
consider this critical.  Again, if you want to talk about sponsoring
MaraDNS to fix this bug, we can talk about money in private email.  I
will even list you on the MaraDNS sponsors page:

http://www.maradns.org/sponsors.html

And even on the front page if the sponsorship offer is generous enough.

I encourage people to read my blog, where I talk about all the latest
updates to MaraDNS and talk about my unpaid support boundaries:

http://maradns.blogspot.com/2009/01/maradns-update-last-one-for-while.html

http://maradns.blogspot.com/2009/01/maradns-support-boundaries-linux-rocks.html

Basically, I generally only consider the inability to resolve a given
host name critical (Read: Important enough for me to fix without being
compensated for my time) if it's impossible to resolve the name at
all, and if the site is an Alexa top 500 site.

You may wish to read this thread to see an example of MaraDNS having a
hard time with resolving some host names:

http://woodlane.webconquest.com/pipermail/list/2009-January/000234.html

I hope this helps people better understand the MaraDNS development
process and why it is I'm reluctant to fix "this host does not
resolve" bugs without being compensated for my time.

- Sam