[161042] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: looking for terminology recommendations concerning non-rooted
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Cutler James R)
Fri Feb 22 22:50:09 2013
From: Cutler James R <james.cutler@consultant.com>
In-Reply-To: <20776.13244.443230.554193@world.std.com>
Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2013 22:49:57 -0500
To: nanog@nanog.org
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
A domain name without a terminal dot is a relative domain name. =20
-- An application requesting name to address translation gets to decide =
if a search list is to be used, including the default of dot.
A domain name with a terminal dot is a Fully Qualified Domain Name.=20
-- An application requesting name to address translation must submit the =
name as received to the lookup process.
These definitions have been effective of decades and do not need =
additional terminology. =20
-- Faulty implementations are not an excuse for ever more complex =
terminology.
As a side note, a hostname is usually a domain name. A domain name is =
never necessarily a hostname. For example, the hostname command on my =
mini returns "minijim", while the domain name used to reach my mini =
locally is "minijim.local", but that is not my mini's hostname. But my =
mini's name to address lookup mechanism uses protocols other than DNS to =
figure that out. But, new terminology for hostnames or domain names was =
never required.
James R. Cutler
james.cutler@consultant.com
