On Jul 7, 2005, at 10:48 AM, Michael Thomas wrote:
My guess is that it has something to do with shell syntax
issues for scripting (especially host), but that's only a
guess.
Actually, I think it has something to do with zone file syntax. I
haven't looked at the code for dig, but I have looked at the code for
dnsjava (both are written by the same people). In dnsjava (seemingly
used most by Java-based MTAs), the escaping is for the semicolon (;),
the backslash (\), and the doublequote ("). Oddly enough, dnspython
shares the same heritage but does not exhibit this behavior. I'm
inquiring with the authors why this is being done, and I'll report
back what I learn.
-andy