Dave Crocker wrote: > > I keep trying to understand why the SMTP use of AAAA records should be any > different than its use of A records. Haven't heard a solid explanation, > nevermind seen consensus forming around it. > It seems there are two ways of looking at this: (1) AAAA records in the IPv6 world should do exactly same things as A records in the IPv4 world, so SMTP should look for an AAAA record in the absence of an MX record, just as A records are used in the absence of MX records. (2) Although some SMTP servers will continue to be found through A records for legacy reasons, there is no longer a good reason for any new server not to have a published MX record. SMTP clients (senders) will, of course, need to continue to look up A records, but since there is currently no significant use of AAAA records for email routing, we should not perpetuate this legacy in IPv6 as it is in IPv4. These are both reasonable positions, but I'm in camp (2). The additional use of AAAA records for email address resolution would add complexity to at least some implementations and test cases, and it something that should never be needed: v6 mail handlers will just publish MX records. There is probably a small DNS efficiency argument as well, especially if the MX, A, and AAAA requests are not made together. I wish that 2821bis made a stronger statement deprecating the use of A records for email address resolution, but it seems not to have been the consensus to do so. Writing a separate BCP on this point is not a good use of anyone's time. -Jim _______________________________________________ IETF mailing list IETF@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf