As per Relevance of the word computer, we have this rfc below:
Network Working Group D.
Request for Comments: 1178 Integrated Systems Group/
FYI: 5 August 1990
Choosing a Name for Your
Status of this
This FYI RFC is a republication of a Communications of the
article on guidelines on what to do and what not to do when
your computer [1]. This memo provides information for the
community. It does not specify any standard
Distribution of this memo is unlimited
In order to easily distinguish between multiple computers, we
them names. Experience has taught us that it is as easy to
bad names as it is to choose good ones. This essay
guidelines for deciding what makes a name good or bad
Keywords: domain name system, naming conventions,
administration, computer network
As soon as you deal with more than one computer, you need
distinguish between them. For example, to tell your
administrator that your computer is busted, you might say, "Hey Ken
Goon is down!"
Computers also have to be able to distinguish between themselves
Thus, when sending mail to a colleague at another computer, you
use the command "mail libes@goon".
In both cases, "goon" refers to a particular computer. How the
is actually dereferenced by a human or computer need not concern
here. This essay is only concerned with choosing a "good" name. (
is assumed that the reader has a basic understanding of the
name system as described by [2].)
By picking a "good" name for your computer, you can avoid a number
problems that people stumble over again and again
Here are some guidelines on what NOT to do
Libes [Page 1]
RFC 1178 Name Your Computer August 1990
Don't overload other terms already in common use
Using a word that has strong semantic implications in
current context will cause confusion. This is especially
in conversation where punctuation is not obvious and grammar
often incorrect
For example, a distributed database had been built on top
several computers. Each one had a different name. One
was named "up", as it was the only one that accepted updates
Conversations would sound like this: "Is up down?" and "
the machine up." followed by "Which machine?"
While it didn't take long to catch on and get used to
zaniness, it was annoying when occasionally your mind
stumble, and you would have to stop and think about each
in a sentence. It is as if, all of a sudden, English
become a foreign language
Don't choose a name after a project unique to that machine
A manufacturing project had named a machine "shop" since it
going to be used to control a number of machines on a
floor. A while later, a new machine was acquired to help
some of the processing. Needless to say, it couldn't be
"shop" as well. Indeed, both machines ended up performing
specific tasks, allowing more precision in naming. A
later, five new machines were installed and the original
was moved to an unrelated project. It is simply impossible
choose generic names that remain appropriate for very long
Of course, they could have called the second one "shop2" and
on. But then one is really only distinguishing machines
their number. You might as well just call them "1", "2",
"3". The only time this kind of naming scheme is
is when you have a lot of machines and there are no reasons
any human to distinguish between them. For example, a
computer might be controlling an array of one
computers. In this case, it makes sense to refer to them
the array indices
While computers aren't quite analogous to people, their
are. Nobody expects to learn much about a person by
name. Just because a person is named "Don" doesn't mean he
the ruler of the world (despite what the "Choosing a Name
your Baby" books say). In reality, names are just
tags. You cannot tell what a person does for a living,
their hobbies are, and so on
Libes [Page 2]
RFC 1178 Name Your Computer August 1990
Don't use your own name
Even if a computer is sitting on your desktop, it is a
to name it after yourself. This is another case
overloading, in which statements become ambiguous. Does "
the disk drive to don" refer to a person or computer
Even using your initials (or some other moniker)
unsatisfactory. What happens if I get a different
after a year? Someone else gets stuck with "don" and I end
living with "jim". The machines can be renamed, but that
excess work and besides, a program that used a
peripheral or database on "don" would start failing when
wasn't found on the "new don".
It is especially tempting to name your first computer
yourself, but think about it. Do you name any of your
possessions after yourself? No. Your dog has its own name,
do your children. If you are one of those who feel so
to name your car and other objects, you certainly don't
your own name. Otherwise you would have a great deal
trouble distinguishing between them in speech
For the same reason, it follows that naming your computer
same thing as your car or another possession is a mistake
Don't use long names
This is hard to quantify, but experience has shown that
longer than eight characters simply annoy people
Most systems will allow prespecified abbreviations, but why
choose a name that you don't have to abbreviate to begin with
This removes any chance of confusion
Avoid alternate spellings
Once we called a machine "czek". In discussion,
continually thought we were talking about a machine
"check". Indeed, "czek" isn't even a word (although "Czech
is).
Purposely incorrect (but cute) spellings also tend to annoy
large subset of people. Also, people who have learned
as a second language often question their own knowledge
seeing a word that they know but spelled differently. ("
guess I've always been spelling "funxion" incorrectly.
embarrassing!")
Libes [Page 3]
RFC 1178 Name Your Computer August 1990
By now you may be saying to yourself, "This is all
silly...people who have to know how to spell a name will
it and that's that." While it is true that some people
learn the spelling, it will eventually cause
somewhere
For example, one day a machine named "pythagoris" (sic)
awry and began sending a tremendous number of messages to
site administrator's computer. The administrator, who wasn't
very good speller to begin with, had never seen this
before (someone else had set it up and named it), but he had
deal with it since it was clogging up the network as well
bogging down his own machine which was logging all the errors
Needless to say, he had to look it up every time he needed
spell "pythagoris". (He suspected there was an abbreviation
but he would have had to log into yet another computer (
local nameserver) to find out and the network was too jammed
waste time doing that.)
Avoid domain names
For technical reasons, domain names should be avoided.
particular, name resolution of non-absolute hostnames
problematic. Resolvers will check names against domains
checking them against hostnames. But we have seen instances
mailers that refuse to treat single token names as domains
For example, assume that you mail to "libes@rutgers"
yale.edu. Depending upon the implementation, the mail may
to rutgers.edu or rutgers.yale.edu (assuming both exist).
Avoid domain-like names
Domain names are either organizational (e.g., cia.gov)
geographical (e.g., dallas.tx.us). Using anything like
tends to imply some connection. For example, the name "tahiti
sounds like it means you are located there. This is
if it is really somewhere else (e.g., "tahiti.cia.gov
located in Langley, Virginia? I thought it was the CIA'
Tahiti office!"). If it really is located there, the
implies that it is the only computer there. If this isn'
wrong now, it inevitably will be
There are some organizational and geographical names that
fine. These are exactly the ones that do not function well
domain names. For example, amorphous names such as rivers
mythological places and other impossibilities are
suitable. ("earth" is not yet a domain name.)
Libes [Page 4]
RFC 1178 Name Your Computer August 1990
Don't use antagonistic or otherwise embarrassing names
Words like "moron" or "twit" are good names if no one else
going to see them. But if you ever give someone a demo on
machine, you may find that they are distracted by seeing
nasty word on your screen. (Maybe their spouse called
that this morning.) Why bother taking the chance that
will be turned off by something completely irrelevant to
demo
Don't use digits at the beginning of the name
Many programs accept a numerical internet address as well as
name. Unfortunately, some programs do not
distinguish between the two and may be fooled, for example,
a string beginning with a decimal digit
Names consisting entirely of hexadecimal digits, such
"beef", are also problematic, since they can be
entirely as hexadecimal numbers as well as alphabetic strings
Don't use non-alphanumeric characters in a name
Your own computer may handle punctuation or control
in a name, but most others do not. If you ever expect
connect your computer to a heterogeneous network, you can
on a variety of interpretations of non-alphanumeric
in names. Network conventions on this are
nonstandard
Don't expect case to be preserved
Upper and lowercase characters look the same to a great deal
internet software, often under the assumption that it is
you a favor. It may seem appropriate to capitalize a name
same way you might do it in English, but convention
that computer names appear all lowercase. (And it
holding down the shift key.)
Now that we've heard what not to do, here are some suggestions
names that work well
Use words/names that are rarely used
While a word like "typical" or "up" (see above) isn't
jargon, it is just too likely to arise in discussion and
off one's concentration while determining the correct referent
Instead, use words like "lurch" or "squire" which are
Libes [Page 5]
RFC 1178 Name Your Computer August 1990
to cause any confusion
You might feel it is safe to use the name "jose" just
no one is named that in your group, but you will have a
if you should happen to hire Jose. A name like "sphinx"
be less likely to conflict with new hires
Use theme names
Naming groups of machines in a common way is very popular,
enhances communality while displaying depth of knowledge
well as imagination. A simple example is to use colors,
as "red" and "blue". Personality can be injected by
such as "aqua" and "crimson".
Certain sets are finite, such as the seven dwarfs. When
order your first seven computers, keep in mind that you
probably get more next year. Colors will never run out
Some more suggestions are: mythical places (e.g., Midgard
Styx, Paradise), mythical people (e.g., Procne, Tereus, Zeus),
killers (e.g., Cain, Burr, Boleyn), babies (e.g., colt, puppy
tadpole, elver), collectives (e.g., passel, plague, bevy
covey), elements (e.g., helium, argon, zinc), flowers (e.g.,
tulip, peony, lilac, arbutus). Get the idea
Use real words
Random strings are inappropriate for the same reason that
are so useful for passwords. They are hard to remember.
real words
Don't worry about reusing someone else's hostname
Extremely well-known hostnames such as "sri-nic" and "uunet
should be avoided since they are understood in conversation
absolute addresses even without a domain. In all other cases
the local domain is assumed to qualify single-part hostnames
This is similar to the way phone numbers are qualified by
area code when dialed from another area
In other words, if you have choosen a reasonable name, you
not have to worry that it has already been used in
domain. The number of hosts in a bottom-level domain is small
so it shouldn't be hard to pick a name unique only to
domain
Libes [Page 6]
RFC 1178 Name Your Computer August 1990
There is always room for an exception
I don't think any explanation is needed here. However, let
add that if you later decide to change a name (to
sensible like you should have chosen in the first place),
are going to be amazed at the amount of pain awaiting you.
matter how easy the manuals suggest it is to change a name,
will find that lots of obscure software has rapidly
which refers to that computer using that now-ugly name. It
has to be found and changed. People mailing to you from
sites have to be told. And you will have to remember
names on old backup media labels correspond to different names
I could go on but it would be easier just to forget
guideline exists
Most people don't have the opportunity to name more than one or
computers, while site administrators name large numbers of them.
choosing a name wisely, both user and administrator will have
easier time of remembering, discussing and typing the names of
computers
I have tried to formalize useful guidelines for naming computers
along with plenty of examples to make my points obvious. Having
both a user and site administrator, many of these anecdotes come
real experiences which I have no desire to relive. Hopefully,
will avoid all of the pitfalls I have discussed by choosing
computer's name wisely
Thanks to the following people for suggesting some of
guidelines and participating in numerous discussions on
naming: Ed Barkmeyer, Peter Brown, Chuck Hedrick, Ken Manheimer,
Scott Paisley
This essay first appeared in the Communications of the ACM, November
1989, along with a Gary Larson cartoon reprinted with permission
United Press Syndicate. The text is not subject to copyright,
it is work of the National Institute of Standards and Technology
However, the author, CACM, and NIST request that this credit
with the article whenever it is reprinted
Libes [Page 7]
RFC 1178 Name Your Computer August 1990
[1] Libes, D., "Choosing a Name for Your Computer",
of the ACM, Vol. 32, No. 11, Pg. 1289, November 1989.
[2] Mockapetris, P., "Domain Names - Concepts and Facilities",
RFC 1034, USC/Information Sciences Institute, November 1987.
Security
Security issues are not discussed in this memo
Author's
Don
Integrated Systems
National Institute of Standards and
Gaithersburg, MD 20899
Phone: (301) 975-3535
EMail: libes@cme.nist.
Libes [Page 8]
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