[ On Wed, September 16, 1998 at 20:11:28 (-0400), John Hawkinson wrote: ]
Subject: Re: COM zone and serials
For instance, traceroute that differs from the canonical version (ftp.ee.lbl.gov).
Although the verions of traceroute at ftp.ee.lbl.gov may be the root of all traceroutes, I'd never consider it to be the most portable one. That said though I must admit I've stopped using Eric's version of traceroute in favour of the version that comes with NetBSD. However in the days I was still using SunOS-4 on my primary server(s), Eric's version was enormously better than the LBL version, and much easier to get working.
"host" that differs from any of the canonical versions (like that distributed with bind), etc., etc.
I think you'll find the 'host' in the "tools" sub-directory of the BIND distribution is an extremely ancient predecessor to the version Eric maintains and that the one in the "contrib/host" sub-directory is in fact a slightly out-of-date version of Eric's host(1). I.e. Eric's host(1) *is* the "canonical" version.
I think promulgating their usage as long as they conflict in name with more popular versions of the same programs is A Poor Idea.
What you call a "canonical" version simply may be the "original predecessor". Even I maintain and distribute enhanced versions of programs that originally came from elsewhere (eg. fingerd, newsyslog, etc.). I rarely, if ever, change their names (though usually I give the distribution tar archive a different version name :-). "Use what works. Use what works best." -- Greg A. Woods +1 416 218-0098 VE3TCP <gwoods@acm.org> <robohack!woods> Planix, Inc. <woods@planix.com>; Secrets of the Weird <woods@weird.com>