looking for terminology recommendations concerning non-rooted FQDNs

Sat Feb 23 13:28:38 UTC 2013

In message <30545475.6952.1361592063875.JavaMail.root at benjamin.baylink.com>, Ja
y Ashworth writes:
> ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Cutler James R" <james.cutler at consultant.com>
> 
> > A domain name without a terminal dot is a relative domain name.
> > -- An application requesting name to address translation gets to
> > decide if a search list is to be used, including the default of dot.
> > 
> > A domain name with a terminal dot is a Fully Qualified Domain Name.
> > -- An application requesting name to address translation must submit
> > the name as received to the lookup process.
> > 
> > These definitions have been effective of decades and do not need
> > additional terminology.
> > -- Faulty implementations are not an excuse for ever more complex
> > terminology.
> 
> The authoritative document here is, as Joe Abley noted earlier, RFC 1035,
> which says, in section 5.1:
> 
> """
> Domain names that end in a dot are called absolute, and are taken as 
> complete.  Domain names which do not end in a dot are called relative; 
> the actual domain name is the concatenation of the relative part with 
> an origin specified in a $ORIGIN, $INCLUDE, or as an argument to the
> master file loading routine.  A relative name is an error when no
> origin is available.
> """

Which applies to domain names in master files.

> Or, in more Jewish terms: not so much.
> 
> And in fact, I don't believe that you *have* a manual API-level choice
> as an application as to whether your resolver library will apply a
> search list or not: if you specify an absolute name, it won't; if you 
> specify a relative name, it will.
> 
> Nope: gethostbyname(3) only takes one argument: char *hostname
> 
> So the only control you have as app is whether you include the trailing
> dot.

On most platforms it isn't the only control.  Not gethostname predates
search lists and even heirachical domain named.

> (PS: your quoting (or bulleting) protocol is non-standard and non-intuitive)
> 
> Cheers,
> -- jra
> 
> 
> -- 
> Jay R. Ashworth                  Baylink                       jra at baylink.co
> m
> Designer                     The Things I Think                       RFC 210
> 0
> Ashworth & Associates     http://baylink.pitas.com         2000 Land Rover DI
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> 
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