Bug 157286

Summary:	Odd behavior with hostnames with leading or trainling dashes (hyphens)
Product:	Gentoo Linux	Reporter:	Mark Purtill <gentoo>
Component:	[OLD] Unspecified	Assignee:	Gentoo Linux bug wranglers <bug-wranglers>
Status:	RESOLVED INVALID
Severity:	normal
Priority:	High
Version:	2006.1
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
URL:	http://www.netalive.org/topics/32153
Whiteboard:
Package list:		Runtime testing required:	---

Description Mark Purtill 2006-12-05 21:44:17 UTC

% host -- -brainfreeze-.blogspot.com
-brainfreeze-.blogspot.com is an alias for blogspot.l.google.com.
blogspot.l.google.com has address 72.14.219.191
-brainfreeze-.blogspot.com is an alias for blogspot.l.google.com.
-brainfreeze-.blogspot.com is an alias for blogspot.l.google.com.
% ping -- -brainfreeze-.blogspot.com
ping: unknown host -brainfreeze-.blogspot.com
% ping 72.14.219.191
PING 72.14.219.191 (72.14.219.191) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 72.14.219.191: icmp_seq=1 ttl=241 time=115 ms
64 bytes from 72.14.219.191: icmp_seq=2 ttl=241 time=116 ms
...

Firefox also cannot see -brainfreeze-.blogspot.com, which is how I originally noticed the problem, but it has nothing to do with firefox.

According to the discussion at the url <http://www.netalive.org/topics/32153>, hostnames like this are not valid according to the relevant standard; however, they do seem to be out there (the url gives another, which I haven't tested), and MS Windows allows them, so probably linux has to allow them too.  The discussion there also suggests glibc where the check is being done, and gives a workaround (putting the site in question in /etc/hosts) which seems to work.

Comment 1 Jakub Moc (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2006-12-05 23:51:06 UTC

These hostnames break RFCs and are not valid -> the only bug is with people using them.

Comment 2 Mark Purtill 2006-12-06 09:53:04 UTC

As I implied in my original message, I think that's a short sighted attitude.  But, whatever, I tried.