Re2: IP Address Oddness ??

[Stephanie Wright <swright@xxxxxxxxx>]

> Stephanie:
>
>    Thanks for your reply.
>
> On 08/09/2001 13:43 USA PT (-0800), swright@xxxxxxxxx ( Stephanie Wright
> ), wrote...
>
> > Well, that's not really a correct IP address, so people should be
> > discouraged from using it.
>    So, the rule is that IP addresses shouldn't contain leading zeros.


It's not exactly against the law, but...

Well, I've been plowing through some rather technical stuff in RFCs 
and on mailing lists devoted to the new internet number system, IPv6 
(so that we have more IP# available). Long discussion about how BIND 
will deal with the various numbering schemes.

Now, this is very heavy reading, and I know there are folks on this 
list who know a whole more than I do about some of this stuff, so if 
I am wrong here, please speak up and provide a reference.

> Fair enough, I just thought it was more accurate to use all posible
> characters in each set of three.

The usual dotted 4 IP number, is assumed to be decimal integers 
ranging from 1-255 in each quad. (and one normally doesn't use a 
leading zero in an integer)

If you put in a leading zero, it is assumed that the number is an 
octal  number.

There are statements like this:

All numbers supplied as ``parts'' in a `.' notation may be decimal, 
octal, or hexadecimal, as specified in the C language (i.e., a 
leading 0x or 0X implies hexadecimal; otherwise, a leading 0 implies 
octal; otherwise, the number is interpreted as decimal).

Now this is all quite confusing. But I would say, to be safe, don't 
use leading zeros because it might lead to unforeseen consequences in 
DNS, Sendmail (which is very picky about things) and elsewhere.

And I think that's enough research on this question for today, my 
brain is full.

--
    Stephanie J. Wright

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