Question about hosts_access(5)

[Kwan Lowe]

>     An  expression  of the form 'n.n.n.n/m.m.m.m´ is interpreted as a
>     'net/mask´ pair. An IPv4 host address is matched if 'net´ is equal
>     to the bitwise AND of the  address  and  the  'mask´.  For example,
>     the  net/mask pattern '131.155.72.0/255.255.254.0´ matches every
>     address in the range '131.155.72.0´ through '131.155.73.255´.
>
>
>     Is there any reason why it must be written out as:
>
>         131.155.72.0/255.255.254.0
>
>     ... as opposed to using the shorter version:
>
>         131.155.72.0/23

At one point it was possible to create a non-contiguous mask. This would not be
doable with the short / notation.

I've never actually used a non-contiguous mask, but there's a whole chapter on it in
one of my earlier networking books.

-- 
* The Digital Hermit   http://www.digitalhermit.com
* Unix and Linux Solutions   kwan at digitalhermit.com