tower@inmet.UUCP (07/27/85)
/* Written 11:47 am Jul 19, 1985 by uwvax!dave in inmet:net.mail */ /* ---------- "Re: Name space explosion -- first t" ---------- */ > Speaking of duplicate sitenames, has anyone else noticed that there is > a site named odin both in NJ and somewhere in Great Britain? What's worse > is that pathalias thinks that the fastest way to get to another site > on the localnet in GB containing odin is through NJ. Well let's speak of triplicate names: The name zeus is used for three sites in New Jersey, Oregon, and Great Britain. I am getting a bit tired of adding -dxyz!non_singleton_offender to pathalias's makefile. Someday soon the command string will be too long to pass into the shell from make. One solution would be to modify pathalias to accept a dot in site identifiers but just output only the sitename before the dot (easy), AND modify all the non-singleton names in mod.map.uucp to the full domains (harder-best done once via cbosgd!map and its volunteers). I still wonder why the maps aren't adequately check for non-singletons before they are sent out, a simple script would show a small set of likely candidates. For example: produces: zeus.OR.UUCP x(DEMAND) x!zeus zeus.NJ.ATT.UUCP y(DEMAND) y!zeus zeus.HWCS.GB.UUCP z(DEMAND) z!zeus We could still have just: ihnp4 x(DEMAND), zeus.NJ.ATT.UUCP(DEMAND), .... ihnp4!x ihnp4!zeus for now, and switch all of the database over to domains with time. Len Tower Intermetrics, Inc. UUCP: {bellcore,ima,ihnp4}!inmet!tower INTERNET: ima!inmet!tower@CCA-UNIX.ARPA
dms@mit-hermes.ARPA (David M. Siegel) (08/03/85)
The major problem (and possibly advantage) of Usenet is that random additions to the network take place. No naming scheme will allow addresses to remain fixed if anyone is allowed to add any host name to a network at will. Some governing body must allocate names if order is to be maintained. If people do not want to have some central network operations center, than chaos will be a fact of life. -- Arpa: dms@mit-hermes.arpa Usenet: mit-eddie!mit-hermes!dms