Would anyone object if I made netcfg forbid all-numeric hostnames? RFC 1912 s2.1 says you aren't allowed them (although its status is Informational, and RFC 2181 seems to supersede that restriction). DNS lore such as http://www.zytrax.com/books/dns/apa/names.html advises against their use. More importantly for Debian, I think, it's clear from #65041 that attempting to use all-numeric hostnames in our system is asking for trouble. I have to say I've never encountered a real network that used them, and they would confuse me no end if I did.
The only particular obstacle seems to be the MUST in RFC 1123 s2.1. Firstly, I suspect that this was more intended to mandate that host software had to support names like 3com.com, although obviously that's guesswork. Secondly, I think this applies more to software that might need to interoperate with hosts with existing all-numeric names than to software that's arranging for the installation of new hosts. Thanks, -- Colin Watson [[email protected]] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected] Archive: http://lists.debian.org/[email protected]
