From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!hpda!ld
Newsgroups: net.news
Title: Re: Choose better site names, guys
Article-I.D.: hpda.362
Posted: Tue Feb 15 21:28:17 1983
Received: Sun Feb 20 13:16:12 1983

Sorry Christoph(er?), mnemonic site names and uucp do not necessarily
mix.  When administering a multi-node-star installation, uucp insists that 
three rules be honored in naming said sites:

	1) Site names must be unique.
	2) Site names must be the same length.
	3) Site names must be no more than 7 characters.

The first and third rules should be obvious to anyone.  The second is a
little bit more obscure.  Due to a prefix scanner in uucp, if site
names are not the same length, mail (and news) can get misdirected.
A case in point occurred when we had site connections:

	     hpda2
	    /     \
	hpda ----- hpda3

If hpda2 sent files via uucp to hpda3, but it was deferred (put in 
the spool directory), then hpda connected with hpda2, hpda would take 
ALL files destined for hpda3 because (within 4 characters) `hpda' 
matched `hpda3'.

If rules 2 or 3 are violated, there MIGHT be no side effect.  If there
is a side effect, it will drive the uucp administrator to drink, trying
to figure out where the files went (try this on a non-source licensed
system).

Then there is netnews!  Remember, the return addresses keep getting longer
each time the news is passed to another machine.  This should give some impetus
to keep site names short (5 characters should do it).  Superfluous characters
(such as `-') should be avoided (yes, I know some hp sites have `hp-', they
do not believe in the same religion that I do).  If the return path gets too
long, it gets mysteriously truncated.

What it boils down to is: What are the site names for?  Are they there 
for the sake of the humans or the sake of the transport mechanisms?
There is a netnews site directory that equates site names with entities.
Besides, what better mnemonic for Indian Hill than ih?

		Larry Dwyer
		ucbvax!hpda!ld