Resolver Issues (non valid hostname characters)

[Marius Strom]

Ok, I've written such a program and have run it on a wide variety of
systems.

The program is at <http://www.marius.org/~marius/rfc952.c> for your
perusal.  It's quick and dirty, and I didn't go for the extra credit of
checking gethostbyaddr() calls.

Here are my findings (And you may be surprised):

Solaris 2.6: Violates RFC952
Solaris 8: Violates RFC952
Solaris 9: Violates RFC952
AIX 2: Violates RFC952
AIX 4.3: Violates RFC952
AIX 5.1: Violates RFC952
Digital Unix 4.0D: Violates RFC952
HP-UX B.11.00: Violates RFC952
OpenBSD 3.1: Violates RFC952
OpenBSD 3.2: Violates RFC952
Darwin 6.4: Violates RFC952
Linux 2.2.20: Violates RFC952
Linux 2.4.18: Violates RFC952
Mac OS X: Violates RFC952
Irix64 6.5: Violates RFC952
Windows 2000*: Violates RFC952
Windows XP*: Violates RFC952
Windows 98*: Violates RFC952
Windows NT 4.0*: Violates RFC952
Cisco IOS 12.1.8*: Violates RFC952
FreeBSD 3.3-STABLE: Complies w/RFC952
FreeBSD 4.7-RELEASE: Compiles w/RFC952

* These hosts wouldn't run my C program as-is.  Missing WinSock compiler
  libraries or what not, so they were tested by `ping
  host_name_with_underscore` to check for success

Looks as though FreeBSD is the ONLY operating system to comply with
this.  I wasn't able to get ahold of a NetBSD system to test.  Looks
like if you admin a non-FreeBSD system it doesn't comply with the RFC.

On Wed, 26 Mar 2003, Terry Lambert wrote:
> IP of "demo_host" in some domain under your own control, in
> which you have created the record for "demo_host" with an IP
> address of 1.1.1.1.
> 
> Then you run the program, and it does a forward lookup on
> the name, and prints the first message if it gets "1.1.1.1",
> and prints the second if it gets and error.
> 
> I would do this for you, but since I believe all hosts I own
> comply with RFC-952, I am unable to create the DNS record for
> testing.
> 
> 
> For bonus points, use a free IP address in your addres block,
> instead of 1.1.1.1, and, if the lookup is successful, do a
> reverse lookup, too, and make sure both gethostbyname() and
> gethostbyaddr() work the way you say they work.
> 
> -- Terry
> 

-- 
                       /------------------------------------------------->
Marius Strom           | Always carry a short length of fibre-optic cable.
Professional Geek      | If you get lost, then you can drop it on the
System/Network Admin   | ground, wait 10 minutes, and ask the backhoe
http://www.marius.org/ | operator how to get back to civilization.
                       \-------------| Alan Frame |---------------------->