[rrg] Name-based API, was: Re: presentation/discussion list

[Brian E Carpenter]

> From: Iljitsch van Beijnum <iljitsch at muada.com>
> Date: Nov 21, 2008 5:15 PM

...
>  I don't think the mere fact that applications must do the name to
> address lookup and then hand the address to the network stack makes
> renumbering harder.

I think it does, for two related reasons.

1. The address lookup API does not (currently) return a lifetime,
so the looker-up gets to make its own assumption about the lifetime
of the address. Many programmers have fallen into the trap of
assuming that the lifetime is infinity.

2. The fact that the upper layer has knowledge of an address with
no known lifetime creates an irresistible temptation to store that
address and use it again an undefined time later.

We've known this was a problem for many years so maybe it's
time to fix it, although that won't help with the legacy apps.

   Brian