IPv6 address/port format

[Keith Owens]

On Thu, 13 Jan 2000 16:59:11 -0500, 
Nathan Dorfman <nathan@rtfm.net> wrote:
>% netscape http://[aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff:gg:hh]:8080/blah
>No match.

netscape 'http://[aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff:gg:hh]:8080/blah'

Standard shell rules for escaping characters.  Trying to restrict meta
characters in a URL to make the URL "shell compatible" is a waste of
time.  The pathname can contain *any* character that the target site
wants to use, including meta characters and spaces and you have no
control over the pathname.  To view "filename with spaces.html", you
*must* enter the URL in the shell as

netscape 'http://www.site.name/filename with spaces.html'

The string must be quoted when the pathname contains special
characters, what is so different about quoting it when the hostname
contains special characters?  This problem already occurs, there are
lots of filenames on the web with spaces in them.