DNS can re-order txt records, or any other record type.
This is not new info, but...
If I have a long spf record and I create 2 or more txt records to handle the
long string, how will the 2 or more strings be combined?
The string "My name, my address, my phone number"
is not part of the spf data in the examples below. I just added it to make
it harder to combine the records.
Examples:
txt "My name, my address, my phone number"
txt "v=spf1 bla bla bla"
txt "more bla to the spf record"
txt "even more bla to the spf record -all"
Now assume they are returned in this order:
txt "even more bla to the spf record -all"
txt "My name, my address, my phone number"
txt "v=spf1 bla bla bla"
txt "more bla to the spf record"
How would a system know how to combine the records?
Maybe a continue directive is needed, like this:
txt "My name, my address, my phone number"
txt "v=spf1 bla bla bla eol:1"
txt "sol:1 more bla to the spf record eol:2"
txt "sol:2 even more bla to the spf record -all"
eol = end of line
sol = start of line
The number is just a tag, the sol tag that matches the eol will be combined.
Or an optional line number directive:
txt "My name, my address, my phone number"
txt "v=spf1 line:1.3 bla bla bla"
txt "line:2.3 more bla to the spf record"
txt "line:3.3 even more bla to the spf record -all"
The line directive is required if more than 1 line exists.
Line:x.y where x is line number, and y is total lines.
You could read is as "line 1 of 3", "line 2 of 3" and "line 3 of 3".
Just ideas. If someone has a better idea, that's fine with me.
Guy