[erlang-bugs] TXT record decoding bug in inet_dns

[Geoff Cant]

Hi there, while sneakily using the private inet_res API to do
interesting DNS queries, I discovered a long-standing bug in inet_dns.

inet_dns incorrectly decodes the RData for TXT records as RData instead
of [Length | Text] = RData, Text. (The RData for TXT records is encoded
as <<Len:8, Text:Len/binary>>).

Attached is a patch against R12B-4 to correct this bug. It should apply
with patch -p1 from the OTP sources root.
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The second patch fixes the encoding of TXT records in the same way.
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On a related note, I've found the functionality in inet_res to be
particularly useful and would like to know if the OTP team would
consider exposing and this functionality. This could be done as a new
'dns' modules for queries, resolution, encoding and decoding or perhaps
just exporting and documenting some of these private inet_res, inet_dns functions.

Ideally I would like to be able to do:

dns:lookup(Name, Type) -> {error, Error} | {ok, RR}.
dns:lookup(Server, Name, Type)
dns:lookup(Server, Name, Type, Timeout)

For at least the SOA, NS, TXT, A, CName, PTR, SRV and MX resource record
types.

I'd be happy to write patches or a new dns module if the OTP team would
look favourably on including it in OTP.

Cheers,
--
Geoff Cant