Subject: [port-srv-reg] Suggested text for service names we have to change

From: Stuart Cheshire <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:27:01 -0700

Here's a first attempt at some text for communicating with people  
about service names we may have to change:

--

Dear <Registrant>,

In our work to update and unify the IANA registry of service and port  
names, we discovered some names that are not compliant with the  
current rules for service names, which state: Fourteen characters  
maximum, conforming to traditional DNS host name rules: only lower- 
case letters, digits, and hyphens; must begin and end with lower-case  
letter or digit.

With people beginning to use these service (port) identifiers in  
programmatic contexts, like DNS SRV records, it is important that we  
have consistent rules for identifier length and allowed character set,  
so that software and hardware implementers have clear guidance about  
what their implementations need to handle. Fortunately virtually all  
current service (port) names comply with the length and character set  
rules, but there are a small number that do not, which we need to fix.

As a result, your original service name "sql*net" is now recorded as  
"sql-net".

It is our understanding that at the present time this name is used  
only as a convenient human mnemonic for referring to the protocol, and  
is not used programmatically in any contexts where the name change  
would lead to incompatibilities. If you believe this is not correct,  
and there is software and/or hardware already in existence whose  
behavior will be affected by this change, please contact us and we  
will work with you to try to work out the best way to proceed.

--

Stuart Cheshire <[email-masked]>
* Wizard Without Portfolio, Apple Inc.
* Internet Architecture Board
* www.stuartcheshire.org

---

From: Magnus Westerlund <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:33:03 -0700

Looks good!

Stuart Cheshire skrev:
> Here's a first attempt at some text for communicating with people about
> service names we may have to change:
> 
> -- 
> 
> Dear <Registrant>,
> 
> names, we discovered some names that are not compliant with the current
> rules for service names, which state: Fourteen characters maximum,
> conforming to traditional DNS host name rules: only lower-case letters,
> digits, and hyphens; must begin and end with lower-case letter or digit.
> 
> It is our understanding that at the present time this name is used only
> as a convenient human mnemonic for referring to the protocol, and is not
> used programmatically in any contexts where the name change would lead
> to incompatibilities. If you believe this is not correct, and there is
> software and/or hardware already in existence whose behavior will be
> affected by this change, please contact us and we will work with you to
> try to work out the best way to proceed.
> 
> -- 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Port-srv-reg mailing list
> [email-masked]
> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/port-srv-reg
> 

-- 

Magnus Westerlund

IETF Transport Area Director & TSVWG Chair
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