RFC 608 (rfc608) - Page 1 of 4

Host names on-line

Network Working Group                                   M.D. Kudlick
RFC # 608                                               SRI-ARC
NIC # 21256                                             January 10, 1974


                           HOST NAMES ON-LINE


We at the NIC agree with Peter Deutsch's suggestion (in RFC# 606 / NIC#
21246) that the NIC maintain an online ASCII text file of Host names,
addresses, and attributes.  That suggestion corresponds to one made by
Vint Cerf recently, and evidently receives ARPA/IPT support.

Jake Feinler at the NIC designed and maintains a source file, in NLS
format, that can be used to generate the ASCII file Peter outlined.  A
program to generate an up to date version of the ASCII file needs to be
written at the NIC, and run periodically (weekly, or as the situation
warrants).  Such a mechanism would allow us, of course, to maintain one
source of data and use it for this and other purposes.

Our present data includes official Host name, Host address, Host status
(user, server, TIP) and certain other information like Technical
Liaison, Host computer, operating system, etc.

Provisions exist for including attributes of the type Peter suggested
(for example FTP byte size, TELNET duplex mode, echoing mode, and
nicknames), but these data are currently NOT in our source file.


To get things moving, therefore, we propose to do the following things:

    1)  We shall write a program to generate the ASCII file in the
        syntax described in RFC# 606, namely:

         ::=  /  ::= 

            Note that this produces a blank line after the .

         ::=  /  ::=  ,  ::=  = 





Kudlick