mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton) (01/15/84)
A little known fact (I just found this out for myself recently) is that the System V version of UUCP only looks at the first 6 characters of the host name. (All previous versions looked at the first 7 characters.) I won't attempt to defend this change, but must point out that System V is a widely used system and a de-facto standard. As a result of this, when the UUCP name registry gets going, it will have to require that all names be unique in the first 6 characters. Here is a list of site names from the Usenet directory that are not unique in the first 6 characters. I suspect that there are many more UUCP sites, not belong to Usenet, with the same problem. I urge these sites to consider renaming themselves with names unique in the first 6 characters. I'm sorry this is necessary. Personally, I think 7 characters is too short. There are versions of UUCP in the works that will use the first 7 (at least) once again, but there will no doubt be many machines running the 6 character System V UUCP for many years to come. Mark Horton count 6 char prefix 2 bunker 3 dadla- 2 datage 3 hplabs 2 intelo 5 kunivv 2 logica 2 sdcatt 2 unidoi