MDNCONV(1)MDNCONV(1)NAMEmdnconv - codeset converter for named.conf and zone master
files
SYNOPSISmdnconv [options..] [file...]
DESCRIPTIONmdnconv is a codeset converter for named configuration
files and zone master files. mdnconv performs codeset
conversion specified either by the command-line arguments
or by the configuration file, and writes the converted
text to stdout.
If file name is specified, mdnconv converts the contents
of the file. Otherwise, mdnconv converts stdin.
Since mdnconv is specifically designed for converting
internatinalized domain names, it may not be suitable as a
general codeset converter.
OPERATION MODESmdnconv has two operation modes.
One is a mode to convert local-encoded domain names to
IDN-encoded one. Usually this mode is used for preparing
domain names to be listed in named configuration files or
zone master files. In this mode, the following processes
are performed in addition to the codeset (encoding) con-
version.
- local mapping
- standard domain name preperation (NAMEPREP)
Furthermore, delimiter mapping is also performed in case
-delimitermap command line option is specified.
The other mode is a reverse conversion, from IDN-encoded
domain name to local-encoded domain names. In this mode,
local mapping and NAMEPREP are not performed since IDN-
encoded names should already be normalized. Instead, a
check is done in order to make sure the IDN-encoded domain
name is properly NAMEPREP'ed. If it is not, the name will
be output in IDN encoding, not in the local encoding.
OPTIONS
Normally mdnconv reads system's default configuration file
(mdn.conf) and perform conversion or name preparation
according to the parameters specified in the file. You
can override the setting in the configuration file by var-
ious command line options below.
-in in-code, -i in-code
Specify the codeset name of the input text. Any of
the following codeset names can be specified.
o Any codeset names which iconv_open() library func-
tion accepts
o AMC-ACE-Z
o RACE
o DUDE
o UTF-8
o Any alias names for the above, defined by the code-
set alias file.
If this option is not specified, the default codeset
is determined from the locale in normal conversion
mode. In reverse conversion mode, the default codeset
is the IDN encoding specified by the configuration
file (``idn-encoding'' entry).
-out out-code, -o out-code
Specify the codeset name of the output text. out-code
can be any codeset name that can be specified for -in
option.
If this option is not specified, the default is the
IDN encoding specified by the configuration file
(``idn-encoding'' entry) in normal conversion mode.
In reverse conversion mode, the default codeset is
determined from the locale.
-conf path, -c path
Specify the pathname of mDNkit configuration file
(``mdn.conf''). If not specified, system's default
file is used, unless -noconf option is specified.
-noconf, -C
Specify that no configuration file is to be used.
-reverse, -r
Specify reverse conversion mode.
If this option is not specified, the normal conversion
mode is used.
-nameprep version, -n version
Specify the version of NAMEPREP. The following is a
list of currently available versions.
nameprep-03
Perform NAMEPREP according to the Internet Draft
``draft-ietf-idn-nameprep-03.txt'' (NAMEPREP-03).
nameprep-05
Perform NAMEPREP according to the Internet Draft
``draft-ietf-idn-nameprep-05.txt'' (NAMEPREP-05).
nameprep-06
Perform NAMEPREP according to the Internet Draft
``draft-ietf-idn-nameprep-06.txt'' (NAMEPREP-06).
This option is a shorthand for specifying the 4
options below.
-map version
-normalize version
-prohibit version
-unassigned version
-nonameprep, -N
Specify to skip NAMEPREP process (or NAMEPREP verifi-
cation process in the reverse conversion mode).
-map map
Specify the name of the mapping rule for NAMEPREP map-
ping process. Currently, following maps are avail-
able.
nameprep-03
Use the list of mappings specified by NAMEPREP-03
draft.
nameprep-05
Use the list of mappings specified by NAMEPREP-05
draft.
nameprep-06
Use the list of mappings specified by NAMEPREP-06
draft.
filemap:path
Use list of mappings specified by mapfile path.
See mdn.conf(5) for the format of a mapfile.
This option can be specified more than once. In that
case, each mapping will be performed in the order of
the specification.
If neither this option nor ``-nameprep'' are speci-
fied, the schemes specified in the configuration file
(``nameprep-map'' entry) are used.
-normalize scheme
Specify the normalization scheme for NAMEPREP normal-
ization process. Currently, following schemes are
available:
unicode-form-kc
Unicode Normlization Form KC, also described in
``Unicode Technical Report #15: Unicode Normal-
ization Forms'', available from unicode.org.
unicode-form-kc/3.0.1
Unicode Normlization Form KC, version 3.0.1
unicode-form-kc/3.1.0
Unicode Normlization Form KC, version 3.1.0
nameprep-03
Synonim for ``unicode-form-kc/3.0.1''.
nameprep-05
Synonim for ``unicode-form-kc/3.1.0''.
nameprep-06
Synonim for ``unicode-form-kc/3.1.0''.
This option can be specified more than once. In that
case, each normalization will be performed in the
order of the specification.
If neither this option nor ``-nameprep'' are speci-
fied, the schemes specified in the configuration file
(``nameprep-normalize'' entry) are used.
-prohibit set
Specify the set of prohibited characters. Currently,
following sets are available.
nameprep-03
Use list of prohibit characters specified by
NAMEPREP-03 draft.
nameprep-05
Use list of prohibit characters specified by
NAMEPREP-05 draft.
nameprep-06
Use list of prohibit characters specified by
NAMEPREP-06 draft.
fileset:path
Use list of characters specified by setfile path.
See mdn.conf(5) for the format of a setfile.
This option can be specified more than once. In this
case, the set of prohibited characters is the union of
the specified sets.
If neither this option nor ``-nameprep'' is specified,
list of characters specified by the configuration file
(``nameprep-prohibit'' entry) is used.
-unassigned set
Specify the set of unassigned codepoints. Currently,
following sets are available.
nameprep-03
Use the list of unassigned characters specified by
NAMEPREP-03 draft.
nameprep-05
Use the list of unassigned characters specified by
NAMEPREP-05 draft.
nameprep-06
Use the list of unassigned characters specified by
NAMEPREP-06 draft.
fileset:path
Use list of characters specified by setfile path.
See mdn.conf(5) for the format of a setfile.
Note that unassigned codepoint checking is not per-
formed unless -unassigncheck option is specified.
This option can be specified more than once. In this
case, the set of prohibited characters is the union of
the specified sets.
If neither this option nor ``-nameprep'' is specified,
list of characters specified by the configuration file
(``nameprep-unassigned'' entry) is used.
-unassigncheck, -u
Specify unassigned codepoint check should be per-
formed. Unassigned codepoint check is disabled by
default.
-delimiter codepoint
Specify the character to be mapped to domain name
delimiter (period). This option can be specified more
than once in order to specify multiple characters.
If this option is not specified, characters specified
by the configuration file (``delimiter-map'') is used.
Note that delimiter mapping is not performed unless
-delimitermap option is specified.
This option is only meaningful in the normal conver-
sion mode.
-delimitermap, -d
Specify delimiter mapping should be performed. By
default, delimiter mapping is disabled.
This option is only meaningful in the normal conver-
sion mode.
-whole, -w
Perform local mapping, nameprep and conversion to out-
put codeset for the entire input text. If this option
is not specified, only non-ASCII characters and their
surrounding texts will be processed. See ``CONVERSION
MECHANISM'' for details.
-alias path, -a path
Specify a codeset alias file. It is a simple text
file, where each line has a pair of alias name and
real name separated by one or more white spaces like
below:
alias-codeset-name real-codeset-name
Lines starting with ``#'' are treated as comments.
-flush
Force line-buffering mode.
-version, -v
Print version information and quit.
LOCAL CODESETmdnconv guesses local codeset from locale and environment
variables. See the ``LOCAL CODESET'' section in
mdn.conf(5) for more details.
CONVERSION MECHANISM
Here is a brief step-by-step description of how mdnconv
does its job.
1. input-side convnersion
mdnconv reads input text line by line, and converts
them from the input codeset to UTF-8 encoding. Basi-
cally this conversion is done using iconv() utility,
but for some special codesets like RACE, special con-
verter will be used.
Normally the whole line is converted, but if the input
codeset is an ACE (ASCII-compatible encoding, such as
RACE), a special conversion prodedure shown below is
used:
1) Find substrings which are valid ASCII domain names
(i.e. constructed from alphanumeric characters and
hyphens) in the line.
2) For each substring found, try converting it to
UTF-8.
3) If the conversion succeeds, replace the substring
with the conversion result. Otherwise, the original
substring is retained.
2. finding where to process
Then mdnconv looks for (part of) internationalized
domain name in the converted line, and picks them up
for further processing.
mdnconv recognizes the character sequence having the
following property as an internationalized domain
name.
o containing at least one non-ASCII character, and
o consisting of legal domain name characters (alpha-
bets, digits, hypens), non-ASCII characters and
period.
If you are not quite sure what this means (as I), the
following regular expression may help you.
[-A-Za-z0-9.]*<non-ASCII char>([-A-Za-z0-9.]|<non-ASCII char>)*
For example, only ``www.###.com'' will be picked up
from the following lines (`#' denotes non-ASCII char-
acter).
www.###.com. IN CNAME serv.xyz.com.
serv.xyz.com. IN A 10.0.0.1
If -whole option is specified, this step is skipped
and the entire line is subject to further processing.
3. delimiter mapping
For each string picked up by the last step, delimiter
mapping is performed. That is, substibute certain
characters specified as domain name delimiter with
period.
4. local mapping
Perform local mapping. If the local mapping is speci-
fied by command line option ``-localmap'', the speci-
fied mapping rule is applied. Otherwise, find the
mapping rule from the configuration file which matches
to the TLD of the name, and perform mapping according
to the matched rule.
5. nameprep
Perform name preparation (NAMEPREP). This is a fol-
lowing 3-step process.
1) Mapping
2) Normalization
3) Prohibited/unassigned character checking
When mdnconv operates in the reverse conversion mode,
this process checks that the given domain name is
properly NAMEPREP'ed. If it is not properly
NAMEPREP'ed and the input codeset is an ACE, the
domain name is converted back to the input codeset in
the following process, instead of the output codeset.
6. output-side conversion
Finally, mdnconv converts the nameprepped strings from
UTF-8 encoding to the output codeset. And it writes
them to stdout together with the rest of the line.
If mdnconv operates in the reverse conversion mode, step 3
and 4 above are skipped.
FILE MANAGEMENT
Maybe the best way to manage named.conf or zone master
files that contains internationalized domain name is to
keep them in your local codeset so that they can be edited
with your favorite editor, and generate a version in the
IDN encoding using mdnconv.
`make' is a convenient tool for this purpose. Suppose the
local codeset version has suffix `.lc', and its ACE ver-
sion has suffix `.ace'. The following Makefile enables
you to generate ACE version from local codeset version by
just typing `make'.
.SUFFIXES: .lc .ace
.lc.ace:
mdnconv-in $(LOCALCODE) $(MDNCONVOPT) $< > $@
LOCALCODE = EUC-JP
MDNCONVOPT =
DESTFILES = db.zone1.ace db.zone2.ace
all: $(DESTFILES)
SEE ALSOmdn.conf(5), iconv(3)BUGS
The automatic input-code selection depends on your system,
and sometimes it cannot guess or guess wrong. It is bet-
ter to explicitly specify it using -in option.
Mar 3, 2001 MDNCONV(1)
