[ih] Tell me about host names and 3com

[Andrew Sullivan]

On Wed, Jan 17, 2024 at 03:20:21PM +1300, Brian E Carpenter via Internet-history wrote:
>Yes but, but, 1123 is *host* requirements and 952 was about /etc/hosts.

Yes.  

>1123 didn't update 1035, which is about domain names. Maybe that should be submitted as an erratum.
>

I don't think it should be.  RFC 1035 doesn't actually require the "preferred name syntax".  People sometimes read section 2.3.1 as such a requirement, but it isn't one.  This is made quite explicit in RFC 2181, section 11:

    Those restrictions [length and the location of the zero-length label]
    aside, any binary string whatever can be used as the label of any
    resource record.  Similarly, any binary string can serve as the value
    of any record that includes a domain name as some or all of its value
    (SOA, NS, MX, PTR, CNAME, and any others that may be added).
    Implementations of the DNS protocols must not place any restrictions
    on the labels that can be used.  In particular, DNS servers must not
    refuse to serve a zone because it contains labels that might not be
    acceptable to some DNS client programs. 

Best regards,

A

-- 
Andrew Sullivan
ajs at crankycanuck.ca