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From: jbeck@hpindwa.HP.COM (John Beck)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains
Subject: Case-sensitive Name Service Routines
Message-ID: <40500002@hpindwa.HP.COM>
Date: 27 Sep 90 17:49:02 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Cupertino CA
Lines: 22

I have noticed that gethostbyname matches host-names in a case-insensitive
manner, whereas the other name service routines (getbetbyname, getprotobyname,
getservbyname) are case sensitive. In addition, getservbyname and getservbyport
also takes a protocol parameter, which they match in a case-sensitive manner.

The reason gethostbyname is case-insensitive is that it is prescribed in the
RFC's for the Domain Name Server (1134 & 1135) that domain names must be case-
insensitive. The others, however, are unspecified.

It seems to me that the other routines should also match names in a case-
insensitive manner. Should it matter whether you call getservbyname with a
parameter of "ftp" vs. "FTP"? I think both should work, although currently
the former will return a pointer to a proper servent structure, whereas the
latter will only return a null pointer.

How do others feel about this issue? Is it worth pursuing to get a change
effected? Or is it too trivial to bother with? Responses encouraged.

Thanks. :-)

-- John Beck
   jbeck@hpda.hp.com