The DNS has always been used to do more than address resolution for a given hostname. For example, the MX record type was defined in the very beginning in RFC1035 (November 1987).
Since than, the variety of record types defined to announce service-specific data has never stopped growing. Despite this, many applications, or the libraries on which they are based, have continued to rely on the gettaddrinfo() API as their main, or only, means of accessing the DNS.
Two projects were proposed, which came to be merged at the beginning of the Hackathon
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Ali: anonymous project motivated by obstacles encountered in developing the Ladybird browser engine;
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Niall: getBETTERinfo project aimed at "Making getaddrinfo() better", either by specifying extensions to the API and underlying data structure, or by "wrapping" this structure in a richer one which would also accommodate relevant DNS data.
- Add description of Ali's proposed project
- Add POC code from Ali and Asbjørn
- Add gap analysis showing application requirements not met by getaddrinfo()
The project title is a backronym from "LHB", an abbreviation of the Dutch word "LieveHeerBeestje", which means "Ladybird" (American: "LadyBug"), and refers to the project which motivated Ali's proposal.