"Eric A. Hall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The last sentence from the following excerpt of RFC 952: > > | 1. A "name" (Net, Host, Gateway, or Domain name) is a text string > | up to 24 characters drawn from the alphabet (A-Z), digits (0-9), > | minus sign (-), and period (.). Note that periods are only allowed > | when they serve to delimit components of "domain style names". > | (See RFC-921, "Domain Name System Implementation Schedule", for > | background). No blank or space characters are permitted as part of > | a name. No distinction is made between upper and lower case. The > | first character must be an alpha character. The last character must > | not be a minus sign or period. A host which serves as a GATEWAY > | should have "-GATEWAY" or "-GW" as part of its name. Hosts which do > | not serve as Internet gateways should not use "-GATEWAY" and "-GW" > | as part of their names. A host which is a TAC should have "-TAC" > | as the last part of its host name, if it is a DoD host. Single > | character names or nicknames are not allowed.
It clearly says that a "name" may contain periods, which delimit "components", and it disallows "single character names", not "single character components". Curiously, it forbids hostnames that end in a dot, and RFC 1034 says that domain names that name hosts should follow the rules for HOSTS.TXT (RFC 952), but also says that full (absolute) domain names end in a dot. AMC
