Go-ipfs: http api/v0/dns says "not a valid domain name", anything else works fine

[etam]

Version information:

go-ipfs version: 0.4.17-
Repo version: 7
System version: amd64/linux
Golang version: go1.10.3

Type:

Bug

Description:

I set up my website, registered domain etam-software.eu and published dnslink TXT record. Accessing through http://127.0.0.1:8080/ipns/etam-software.eu/ works fine, but ipfs-companion firefox addon is not redirecting to my gateway. I found that http api/v0/dns, which is used by addon, returns error, even though everything else works fine:

$ dig +noall +answer TXT etam-software.eu
etam-software.eu.       221     IN      TXT     "dnslink=/ipns/QmanzJhzCXAgry6rT7uyhwdwk9HTDSzVZ4R4mgcBy1nd1j"
$ ipfs name resolve -r etam-software.eu
/ipfs/QmZY4bqaNB8yQUFeVS87QEuNKyTLkfT5eZ1QWwoeozu8xG
$ curl http://127.0.0.1:5001/api/v0/dns/etam-software.eu?r=true
{"Message":"not a valid domain name","Code":0,"Type":"error"}

[lidel]

(drive-by comment)

Looks like a bug in dns command:

$ ipfs dns -r etam-software.eu
Error: not a valid domain name

$ dig +short TXT etam-software.eu
"keybase-site-verification=cyjmMyLHiHvrzT2UvcaUmMcF5FhS7Qk47QbTuhHbfMo"
"dnslink=/ipns/QmanzJhzCXAgry6rT7uyhwdwk9HTDSzVZ4R4mgcBy1nd1j"

[overbool]

@etam

According to the command description and code, I think ipfs dns can't resolve ipns/Qm....,
but can resolve ipns/<domain>

command description:

> dig +short TXT recursive.ipfs.io
dnslink=/ipns/ipfs.io
> ipfs dns -r recursive.ipfs.io
/ipfs/QmRzTuh2Lpuz7Gr39stNr6mTFdqAghsZec1JoUnfySUzcy

[Stebalien]

Yes. Basically, the ipfs dns command can resolve dnslink names only. If you want general-purpose name resolution, use the ipfs name resolve -r command.

However, this should be documented. Would someone like to add a note to the help text along the lines of:

Note: This command can only recursively resolve DNS links, it will fail to recursively resolve through IPNS keys etc. For general-purpose recursive resolution, use ipfs name resolve -r.

[etam]

@overbool

My main issue is that IPFS Companion is not redirecting from my website to IPFS gateway.

Now, the questions are:

• Is my setup wrong? (I think it's not, but maybe I'm wrong)
• Is there a bug in IPFS? (I thought it is, and @lidel agreed)
• Or, if I correctly understand what you're saying, IPFS Companion is using wrong RPC method?

[Stebalien]

I believe IPFS companion should be calling ipfs dns domain-name without -r. Then, if this succeeds, it should feed /ipns/your-domain to the IPFS gateway (which will repeat the process). Alternatively, it could call ipfs name resolve -r ... and feed the result to the IPFS gateway but I believe this will end up showing the wrong URL in the URL bar.

[Stebalien]

@lidel I believe this is a bug in companion. We could fix it here by making ipfs dns -r recurse through IPNS keys but that may have performance implications for some applications.

On the other hand, we may want to just stop at the first non-IPNS key.

---

I've merged the doc fix for now as that's strictly better than simply not working but we may want a better fix.

[lidel]

@Stebalien I agree, we can switch Companion to use ipfs name resolve -r to traverse IPNS, however we still need to fix basic ipfs dns (without -r) to work and tell us if DNSLink exists or not.

And from what I see it does not work for etam-software.eu right now:

$ ipfs dns -r etam-software.eu
Error: not a valid domain name

$ ipfs dns etam-software.eu
Error: could not resolve name (recursion limit exceeded)

$ dig +short TXT etam-software.eu
"keybase-site-verification=cyjmMyLHiHvrzT2UvcaUmMcF5FhS7Qk47QbTuhHbfMo"
"dnslink=/ipns/QmanzJhzCXAgry6rT7uyhwdwk9HTDSzVZ4R4mgcBy1nd1j"

What is worse, lookup for ipfs.io works only WITH -r and fails without it:

$ ipfs dns ipfs.io
Error: could not resolve name (recursion limit exceeded)

$ ipfs dns -r ipfs.io                                                                                                                                                                                                   /ipfs/QmS4fTD7Rh8NouNhp9uZbawUdBpgHaUTeL3EnxX8Tiiu7H

$ dig +short TXT ipfs.io
"dnslink=/ipns/website.ipfs.io"
"v=spf1 a include:_spf.google.com ~all"

Just to be sure its not me, are you able to reproduce above errors?

Would it be possible to fix ipfs dns (without -r) to return dnslink as-is?

I think this would be the expected behavior:

$ ipfs dns ipfs.io
/ipns/website.ipfs.io

$ ipfs dns etam-software.eu
/ipns/QmanzJhzCXAgry6rT7uyhwdwk9HTDSzVZ4R4mgcBy1nd1j

[Stebalien]

How about: https://github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/issues/5635

[lidel]

https://github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/issues/5585#issuecomment-432304451 continued in https://github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/issues/6454