3 ms·

Ahhh yup, that makes perfect sense given how zone files are formatted. But that moves the question. Why do zone files use ; as comment? Some old assembly diale

by kortex 5y ago

Ahhh yup, that makes perfect sense given how zone files are formatted. But that moves the question. Why do zone files use ; as comment? Some old assembly dialect? I've not worked much with assembly but it's always been # or //

fanf2 5y ago
The original DNS implementation (called JEEVES) was written by Paul Mockapetris to run on the PDP-10, which is why the zone file syntax is not very unixy. The ; comments are one example: and backslash escapes are decimal rather than octal, line continuation uses () instead of escaping.
- throw0101a 5y ago
  Straight from the source: > @jpmens @bortzmeyer @PowerDNS_Bert @kolkman The ";" was the comment delimiter in the TOPS-20 word, hash was dragged in by the UNIX types * https://twitter.com/svnr2000/status/659062798681546752 https://twitter.com/svnr2000/status/659062798681546752 See also RFC 883, "Domain Names - Implementation and Specification": > ; Semicolon is used to start a comment; the remainder of the line is ignored. * https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc883 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc883 Via: * https://jpmens.net/2015/10/28/the-semicolon-in-zone-master-files-some-history/ https://jpmens.net/2015/10/28/the-semicolon-in-zone-master-f...
jvolkman 5y ago
Maybe the original creator was an Emacs fan? Lisp also uses semicolons for comments.
detaro 5y ago
; is quite common in assembly as the comment marker. And zone files are old, so the // or # were not as standard as they are today.
throw0101a 5y ago
> @jpmens @svnr2000 ; was chosen as a comment in zone files because that's what the PDP10 and other macro assemblers used in those days. * https://twitter.com/paulvixie/status/659934566883328000 https://twitter.com/paulvixie/status/659934566883328000 Via: * https://jpmens.net/2015/10/28/the-semicolon-in-zone-master-files-some-history/ https://jpmens.net/2015/10/28/the-semicolon-in-zone-master-f...

by kortex 5y ago

fanf2 5y ago

The original DNS implementation (called JEEVES) was written by Paul Mockapetris to run on the PDP-10, which is why the zone file syntax is not very unixy. The ; comments are one example: and backslash escapes are decimal rather than octal, line continuation uses () instead of escaping.

throw0101a 5y ago
Straight from the source: > @jpmens @bortzmeyer @PowerDNS_Bert @kolkman The ";" was the comment delimiter in the TOPS-20 word, hash was dragged in by the UNIX types * https://twitter.com/svnr2000/status/659062798681546752 https://twitter.com/svnr2000/status/659062798681546752 See also RFC 883, "Domain Names - Implementation and Specification": > ; Semicolon is used to start a comment; the remainder of the line is ignored. * https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc883 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc883 Via: * https://jpmens.net/2015/10/28/the-semicolon-in-zone-master-files-some-history/ https://jpmens.net/2015/10/28/the-semicolon-in-zone-master-f...

jvolkman 5y ago

Maybe the original creator was an Emacs fan? Lisp also uses semicolons for comments.

detaro 5y ago

; is quite common in assembly as the comment marker. And zone files are old, so the // or # were not as standard as they are today.

throw0101a 5y ago

> @jpmens @svnr2000 ; was chosen as a comment in zone files because that's what the PDP10 and other macro assemblers used in those days. * https://twitter.com/paulvixie/status/659934566883328000 https://twitter.com/paulvixie/status/659934566883328000 Via: * https://jpmens.net/2015/10/28/the-semicolon-in-zone-master-files-some-history/ https://jpmens.net/2015/10/28/the-semicolon-in-zone-master-f...