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From: rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains
Subject: Re: Case-sensitive Name Service Routines
Message-ID: <1990Sep29.132138.20362@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Date: 29 Sep 90 13:21:38 GMT
References: <40500002@hpindwa.HP.COM>
Organization: Northern Illinois University
Lines: 26

In article <40500002@hpindwa.HP.COM> jbeck@hpindwa.HP.COM (John Beck) writes:
>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.
>(...)
>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.

 This is not worth worrying about.  There is an important reason for treating
'gethostbyname' differently.  The data used by 'getnetbyname()' etc is
maintained on the local host, so the local administrator can ensure that it
is all lower case.  The data searched for 'gethostbyname()' is part of
a distributed database that is not under local control, so software cannot
make assumptions about case.

 If it ain't broken, don't fix it.
-- 
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  Neil W. Rickert, Computer Science               <rickert@cs.niu.edu>
  Northern Illinois Univ.
  DeKalb, IL 60115.                                  +1-815-753-6940