From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Mar 30 09:50:36 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 21B0237B401 for ; Sun, 30 Mar 2003 09:50:36 -0800 (PST) Received: from harmony.village.org (rover.bsdimp.com [204.144.255.66]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 30D8043F75 for ; Sun, 30 Mar 2003 09:50:35 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from imp@bsdimp.com) Received: from localhost (warner@rover2.village.org [10.0.0.1]) by harmony.village.org (8.12.8/8.12.3) with ESMTP id h2UHoYA7020813; Sun, 30 Mar 2003 10:50:34 -0700 (MST) (envelope-from imp@bsdimp.com) Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2003 10:49:09 -0700 (MST) Message-Id: <20030330.104909.01577314.imp@bsdimp.com> To: louie@TransSys.COM From: "M. Warner Losh" In-Reply-To: <200303301623.h2UGNHDN042824@whizzo.transsys.com> References: <20030330.060534.18864762.imp@bsdimp.com> <200303301623.h2UGNHDN042824@whizzo.transsys.com> X-Mailer: Mew version 2.1 on Emacs 21.2 / Mule 5.0 (SAKAKI) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable cc: arch@freebsd.org cc: des@ofug.org Subject: Re: Allow underscores in DNS names X-BeenThere: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion related to FreeBSD architecture List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2003 17:50:37 -0000 In message: <200303301623.h2UGNHDN042824@whizzo.transsys.com> "Louis A. Mamakos" writes: : > In message: : > des@ofug.org (Dag-Erling Sm=F8rgrav) writes: : > : "M. Warner Losh" writes: : > : > When this has come up in the past, it was decreed that _ is a b= ad bad : > : > bad bad idea, even though people want it. You might want to ch= eck the : > : > ancient archives (1998?) for all the reasons why. : > : = : > : Arguments presented in ancient archives are not necessarily relev= ant : > : five years later. : > = : > True. However, they are still relevant today. '_' is illegal in D= NS : > names, is rejected by the majority of hosts on the internet and : > generally is a bad idea. If you do it, make it optional. : = : Strictly speaking, the '_' is illegal in HOSTNAMES. The DNS can cont= ains : objects other than those used as hostnames, and the protocols support= : arbitrary strings of octets which can be used as labels in DNS names.= : = : It's the application of looking up host names using the DNS which is : in question. And if underscore characters are so toxic in hostnames,= : then why are they allowed in /etc/hosts or NIS-dervied lookups? The question is one of standards conformance and what implementations of DNS do when they get an illegal character. Warner