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StackExchange / dnscontrol

Infrastructure as code for DNS!
https://dnscontrol.org/
MIT License
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Tech Debt that keeps Tom up at night #1823

Open tlimoncelli opened 1 year ago

tlimoncelli commented 1 year ago

There are a number of non-functional tech-debt projects I'd like to do or find someone to do.

Make IGNORE*/PURGE/NO_PURGE more reliable: (DONE!!!)

Problem: IGNORE and PURGE are brittle and don't work right in all situations.

Proposal: I have ideas that would make it cleaner, easier to work with/debug, and easier for provider-authors to use. I will rewrite the pkg/diff module from scratch, and retrofit the old providers.

WIP: https://github.com/StackExchange/dnscontrol/pull/1831 (Tom is actively working on this)

Refactor the DNS Provider interface so that writing providers is less work. (DONE!!!)

Problem: The Go Interface for providers is complex. There are 2 ways to do things. The provider author has to do a lot more work, and include a lot of boilerplate, than intended.

Proposal: The provider interface could be a lot more simple. Authors should simply provide 2 functions: "get all records" and "generate corrections". The framework should handle the rest.

In fact, the interfaces should be pairs of GetRecords/GetRecordsCorrections, GetNameservers/GetNameserversCorrections, etc. That way they're super consistent.

WIP: https://github.com/StackExchange/dnscontrol/pull/1705 is the draft new interface (plus other proposed interfaces).

Standardize provider source code filenames.

Problem: Reading provider code is complex because each provider uses different filenames.

Proposal: Standardize some of the filenames. Something like:

...and update the docs on how to write a provider.

Simplify TXT record support: (DONE!!!)

Problem: We try to be "too smart" in how TXT records are handled. The TXT code is super complex right now. It doesn't need to be.

Proposal: Rewrite TXT record handling to be more simple. Store TXT targets as one long string, even if it was received as a number of segments. Let the providers handle any splitting that is needed. i.e. split the string into 255-octet segments if the API requires it.

BUGID: https://github.com/StackExchange/dnscontrol/issues/1592

Re-do Punycode

Problem: Punycode was implemented as an after-thought and in hindsight we would have done it different.

Proposal: The general philosophy should be (1) users can enter punycode or unicode in dnsconfig.js, (2) internally everything is handled as punycode, (3) output should magically display domain names either the same way the user entered it (which means tracking how it was entered), or always display PunyCode followed by unicode in parenthesis.

Should models.RecordConfig be more object oriented

Systems like miekg/dns create a Go type for each DNS type. Is that something we should do?

Would there be any benefit?

MSDNS should work on Linux PowerShell

Problem: The MSDNS provider doesn't work if not run on Windows.

Proposal: Step one is to use conditional compilation to split out the Windows vs. non-Windows version. Step two is to implement the code on the non-Windows side.

WIP: https://github.com/StackExchange/dnscontrol/issues/1731 (Volunteer needed to pick this up)

onlyhavecans commented 1 year ago

I am interested in improving your sleep at night. I am subscribing to help where I can even though my time is a bit spotty for the next few weeks.

tlimoncelli commented 1 year ago

@onlyhavecans Thanks! (I've updated this with bugids and draft PRs)

tlimoncelli commented 1 year ago

P.S. These don't literally keep me up at night. Actually, a better explanation is that this is part of my technique for avoiding distractions. When I'm writing code, I get distracted by other interesting bugs/refactoring that I'd like to do. I find that if I make a list of things I'm NOT doing, it helps me focus on what I am working on. That said, this list is chock full of opportunities for volunteers to step in, or even just comment on things that are on my mind.

tlimoncelli commented 1 year ago

The good news is that many of these have been implemented:

diff2 makes it not just more reliable, but it now works for all providers.

Done.

Not done, but not super important.

Bugs have been filed for these:

I'm mostly concerned about the TXT record support and Punycode.

That said, I think we can close this issue!

cafferata commented 1 year ago

Fine! 👍 Then you can sleep peacefully now 😴

tlimoncelli commented 5 months ago

Closing this. Most are done, or will soon be done. The rest are minor.