DNS and pages on gateway

[ghost]

A few options for pointing custom domains to a gateway,
as discussed on IRC: https://botbot.me/freenode/ipfs/2015-09-03/

Option 4 seems best, option 3 could also work.

Also checkout:

• https://github.com/neocities/hshca
• https://help.github.com/articles/setting-up-a-custom-domain-with-github-pages/

1. CNAME, with TXT on same domain

CNAME example.net => ipfs.io
TXT example.net => dnslink=/ipns/Qmfoo

This won't work, since we can't have CNAME with any other records (TXT in this case.)

2. A/AAAA, with TXT on same domain

A/AAAA example.net => 1.2.3.4, 5.6.7.8
TXT example.net => dnslink=/ipns/Qmfoo

This works, but now the gateway IP addresses are part of the "API".

3. CNAME, with TXT another subdomain

CNAME example.net => ipfs.io
TXT _dnslink.example.net => dnslink=/ipns/Qmfoo

problem: example.net inherits all ipfs.io records

• e.g. MX records
• or even the TXT record if it doesn't have one

4. CNAME

CNAME example.net => gateway.ipfs.io
TXT _dnslink.example.net => dnslink=/ipns/Qmfoo

We use a target domain for CNAME, instead of ipfs.io,
so that example.net doesn't inherit anything but A/AAAA records.

[kyledrake]

I do like the idea of dnslink for this (esp. combined with IPNS when that is working).

The CNAME as root problem is quite real unfortunately. The way I solved it for Neocities custom domain usage was to have the domains set an A record to a re-assignable IP address at AWS running a web server. That server's only purpose is to redirect domain.com to www.domain.com, which is a CNAME record pointing to proxy.neocitiesops.net. You can see an example here:

curl -i -H "Host: derpie.com" http://54.68.34.66

This is fairly common practice. Tumblr uses something similar for custom domains.

[edrex]

Option 4 seems like a good approach. The practice of using non-host _myprotocol.-prefixed TXT and SRV records has a fine pedigree, and this ensures that there won't be any trouble with CNAME records.

[jbenet]

I do want to allow pure DNS usage of TXT dnslink without CNAME. e.g.

5. Just TXT

TXT example.net => dnslink=/ipns/Qmfoo

We do not have regular redirection for HTTP, this is for pure DNS + IPFS usage.

---

i would like to have this possibility without forcing _dnslink.example.net above (like, we could check for a TXT in this order:

1. first check _dnslink.<domain> if TXT dnslink=<link> found, stop
2. second check <domain>

To me, this is a much cleaner thing, but it does make things more complicated. if others feel this is annoying, then i can just suck it up, use _dnslink.<domain>, and grumble.

[ghost]

• first check _dnslink. if TXT dnslink= found, stop
• second check

SGTM! 👍

[ghost]

For latency optimization, we might send both DNS queries at once

[edrex]

f yeah! I've gotta have another swim in the IPFS-for-site-hosting pool

[ghost]

This shouldn't be closed for now

[ivan386]

I propose to add a DNS record:
this-is-ipfs-site-use-local-gate A 127.0.0.1

In order to show that the site can be accessed through a local gateway for this script proxy.pac

function FindProxyForURL(url, host) {
    if ( shExpMatch(url, "http:*") && dnsResolve("this-is-ipfs-site-use-local-gate."+host) == "127.0.0.1" ){
        return "PROXY 127.0.0.1:8080; DIRECT"
    }
    return "DIRECT"
}

Sorry for my google translate