[Bug 1167352] [NEW] Please improve resolution of domain names ending in ".local"

[Thomas Hood]

Public bug reported:

Avahi uses the ".local" domain and so do many local sites and ISPs.
Currently the avahi daemon is programmed to disable itself if it thinks
that it is on a network where DNS has a ".local" TLD. (The current test
is subject to false negatives as described in bug #80900, but that's
another issue.)

It was observed in the discussion of bug #327362 that it would be better
if a distinction were made between mDNS style names of the form
NAME.local and other names of the form: NAME.NAME[.NAME...].local such
that the former are resolved by mDNS and the latter by DNS. That appears
to be how Mac OS X v10.6 does it (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3473).

"Host names that contain only one label in addition to local, for
example "My-Computer.local", are resolved using Multicast DNS (Bonjour)
by default. Host names that contain two or more labels in addition to
local, for example "server.domain.local", are resolved using a DNS
server by default.

Additionally, Mac OS X v10.6 automatically detects when the local
network operator has set up a name server that will answer name requests
for a domain ending in ".local". It does this by checking to see if
there is a Start Of Authority (SOA) record for the top level domain
"local", which is how a DNS server indicates that it claims to have
authority over a part of the DNS namespace. As long as the DNS server is
properly configured with the required SOA record, Mac OS X v10.6 will
detect this SOA record and automatically use this server to look up all
host names in the domain."

It is wished that Ubuntu implement this behavior.

** Affects: avahi (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1167352

Title:
  Please improve resolution of domain names ending in ".local"

Status in “avahi” package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  Avahi uses the ".local" domain and so do many local sites and ISPs.
  Currently the avahi daemon is programmed to disable itself if it
  thinks that it is on a network where DNS has a ".local" TLD. (The
  current test is subject to false negatives as described in bug #80900,
  but that's another issue.)

  It was observed in the discussion of bug #327362 that it would be
  better if a distinction were made between mDNS style names of the form
  NAME.local and other names of the form: NAME.NAME[.NAME...].local such
  that the former are resolved by mDNS and the latter by DNS. That
  appears to be how Mac OS X v10.6 does it
  (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3473).

  "Host names that contain only one label in addition to local, for
  example "My-Computer.local", are resolved using Multicast DNS
  (Bonjour) by default. Host names that contain two or more labels in
  addition to local, for example "server.domain.local", are resolved
  using a DNS server by default.

  Additionally, Mac OS X v10.6 automatically detects when the local
  network operator has set up a name server that will answer name
  requests for a domain ending in ".local". It does this by checking to
  see if there is a Start Of Authority (SOA) record for the top level
  domain "local", which is how a DNS server indicates that it claims to
  have authority over a part of the DNS namespace. As long as the DNS
  server is properly configured with the required SOA record, Mac OS X
  v10.6 will detect this SOA record and automatically use this server to
  look up all host names in the domain."

  It is wished that Ubuntu implement this behavior.

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