RFC: Partial IP4 syntax

[Henrik Nordstrom]

On Wed, 29 Sep 2004, Simon Lodal wrote:

> What tools are passing IP's literally as full 32bits? I understand why 
> programs (especially in script languages) might do it internally, but between 
> programs?

IETF has not defined such ascii representation of IPv4 addresses, but the 
BSD libc inet_aton function does and this has been inherited by very many 
systems and tools.

This notation is being depreated as it does not serve a very useful 
purpose and can be somewhat confusing, but it exists and conflicting with 
it would be a bad idea.

> If it is really a problem I agree my scheme will break it. Could probably be 
> solved by changing the default to incomplete-at-beginning, so 10 = .10 = 
> 0.0.0.10.

Not without breaking existing "industry standards" on how IP numbers can 
be typed.

You could use 10. for the 10.0.0.0/8 network.

Regards
Henrik