🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Aug01.175721.7875@anomaly.sbs.risc.net> kd1hz@anomaly.sbs.risc.net (Michael P. Deignan (KD1HZ)) writes:
>barmar@think.com (Barry Margolin) writes:
>>It's more than just a convention and good manners, it's simply "the way
>>things work."  The NIC is the master server for the .COM zone (as well as
>>all the other non-country domains).
>
>No argument here. But, if a machine with IP addressibility which I establish
>has no intentions of being addressed via a domain name, but only an IP
>address, then I can call the machine whatever you want. 

But we're not talking about what *you* call it, we're talking about what
goes in the DNS database.  The DNS database is a resource that's shared by
the entire net, and you can't just go making up your own rules.  The name
of the game is Interoperability, and that depends on us all playing the
same game.  And one rule of the game is that a PTR record should have a
corresponding A record.

If you don't want the name of a host to be usable, don't put either record
in the DNS.  If you're using NIS or /etc/hosts, you can put your local name
for the host there, and also call it whatever you want (you may cause
confusion for your own users if you happen to choose a name that's in use
elsewhere, but that's your problem).

-- 
Barry Margolin
System Manager, Thinking Machines Corp.

barmar@think.com          {uunet,harvard}!think!barmar