Re: URL parsing and IPv6 addresses

bookwyrm@agii.solluna.org writes:
 > Earlier, <Shel Kaphan> inscribed:
 > > 
 > > How about just using some other punctuation besides ":" before port numbers
 > > in URLs for IPv6, for example ";"?  Surely the URL parser is going to have
 > > to know whether it's an IPv4 or IPv6 IP address by the time it gets
 > > that far.
 > 
 > ";" would be a very bad character in my opinion - 
 >     "http://100.100.100.100;/bin/rm -rf /"
 > could cause a lot of problems in poorly written scripts that process
 > URLs.  Shell characters should be avoided as much as possible, I think.
 > 
 > I could live with the use of "." to separate the port in IPv6 addresses,
 > though it does allow "http://::131.247.108.14.80/", that is not an 
 > ambiguous representation.
 > 
 > Kim
 > 
 > 

Yes, ";" was not a good choice.  Several people have suggested solving
this by appropriate use of some character that doesn't bother
shells. So far dot (.) or comma (,) sound like the best choices.  (Is
there a common shell or scripting language that cares about comma?)
In any case it seems like some version of this solution (picking a
clear delimiter) involves the least amount of global disturbance.

--Shel

Received on Wednesday, 7 August 1996 22:49:47 UTC