For example, the following strings identify hosts in the Internet:

A.ISI.EDU  XX.LCS.MIT.EDU  SRI-NIC.ARPA

3.6. Resource Records

A domain name identifies a node.  Each node has a set of resource




 
RFC 1034             Domain Concepts and Facilities        November 1987


information, which may be empty.  The set of resource information
associated with a particular name is composed of separate resource
records (RRs).  The order of RRs in a set is not significant, and need
not be preserved by name servers, resolvers, or other parts of the DNS.

When we talk about a specific RR, we assume it has the following:

owner           which is the domain name where the RR is found.

type            which is an encoded 16 bit value that specifies the type
                of the resource in this resource record.  Types refer to
                abstract resources.

                This memo uses the following types:

                A               a host address

                CNAME           identifies the canonical name of an
                                alias

                HINFO           identifies the CPU and OS used by a host

                MX              identifies a mail exchange for the
                                domain.  See [RFC-974 for details.

                NS
                the authoritative name server for the domain

                PTR
                a pointer to another part of the domain name space

                SOA
                identifies the start of a zone of authority]

class           which is an encoded 16 bit value which identifies a
                protocol family or instance of a protocol.

                This memo uses the following classes:

                IN              the Internet system

                CH              the Chaos system

TTL             which is the time to live of the RR.  This field is a 32
                bit integer in units of seconds, an is primarily used by
                resolvers when they cache RRs.  The TTL describes how
                long a RR can be cached before it should be discarded.





 
RFC 1034             Domain Concepts and Facilities        November 1987


RDATA           which is the type and sometimes class dependent data
                which describes the resource:

                A               For the IN class, a 32 bit IP address

                                For the CH class, a domain name followed
                                by a 16 bit octal Chaos address.

                CNAME           a domain name.

                MX              a 16 bit preference value (lower is
                                better) followed by a host name willing
                                to act as a mail exchange for the owner
                                domain.

                NS              a host name.

                PTR             a domain name.

                SOA             several fields.

The owner name is often implicit, rather than forming an integral part
of the RR.  For example, many name servers internally form tree or hash
structures for the name space, and chain RRs off nodes.  The remaining
RR parts are the fixed header (type, class, TTL) which is consistent for
all RRs, and a variable part (RDATA) that fits the needs of the resource
being described.