[GRLUG] Mac & ??: reverse-URL file and directory names

[Eric Beversluis]

On Tue, 2013-04-16 at 11:44 -0400, Matt Behrens wrote:
> On Apr 16, 2013, at 11:36 AM, Eric Beversluis <ebever at researchintegration.org> wrote:
> 
> > I've come across this occasionally and see it on my Mac--eg, under
> > Library/Cache: directory and file names that look like reverse urls:
> > 
> > com.barebones.textwrangler
> > or 
> > com.adobe.ARM
> > 
> > I'm not even clear how I would Google for an explanation of when and how
> > and why this naming convention is used. E.g., if we're naming files on a
> > computer with no internet connection, why start with 'com'? etc.
> 
> 
> It's a way to leverage the domain name system to create namespaces that organizations can use with a reasonable guarantee of uniqueness, without relying on another registration authority.  (For a full guarantee, see tag: URIs: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4151)  In this way, even if several companies had a software package named e.g. "ARM", they could each create their own folder that they could assert full control over.
> 
> I believe the backwards bit is a holdover from Java packages, e.g. com.example.package would result in class files being put in com/example/package, which in turn organizes all the packages from example.com in one directory.
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Great. Thanks. That clears it up. I just always wondered if it had some
mysterious connection to the internet that I was missing. I knew I had
seen it in Java stuff. 'Unique namespace' clear it up for me.