Network Working Group L. Daigle
Request for Comments: 2958 Thinking Cat Enterprises
Category: Informational P. Faltstrom
Cisco Systems Inc.
October 2000
The application/whoispp-response Content-type
Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
This document defines the expression of Whois++ protocol (RFC1835)
responses within MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)
(RFC2046) media types. The intention of this document, in
conjunction with RFC 2957 is to enable MIME-enabled mail software,
and other systems using Internet media types, to carry out Whois++
transactions.
1. MIME Registration Information
To: iana@isi.edu Subject: Registration of MIME media type
application/whoispp-response
MIME Type name: Application
MIME subtype name: whoispp-response
Required parameters: none
Optional parameters: none
Encoding considerations: Any valid MIME encodings may be used
Security considerations: This content-type contains purely
descriptive information (i.e., no directives). There are security
considerations with regards to the appropriateness (privacy) of
Daigle & Faltstrom Informational [Page 1]RFC 2958 application/whoispp-response Content-Type October 2000
information provided through the use of this content-type, and the
authenticity of the information so-provided. This content-type
provides no native mechanisms for authentication.
Published specification: this document
Person & email address to contact for further information:
Leslie L. Daigle
leslie@thinkingcat.com
Intended usage: common
2. whoispp-response Syntax
The following grammar, which uses ABNF-like notation as defined in
[RFC2234], defines a subset of responses expected from a Whois++
server upon receipt of a valid Whois++ query. As such, it describes
the expected structure of a whoispp-response media type object.
N.B.: As outlined in the ABNF definition, rule names and string
literals are in the US-ASCII character set, and are case-insensitive.
server = goodmessage mnl output mnl endmessage nl
/ badmessage nl endmessage nl
output = full / abridged / summary / handle
full = 0*(full-record / server-to-ask)
abridged = 0*(abridged-record / server-to-ask)
summary = summary-record
handle = 0*(handle-record / server-to-ask)
full-record = "# FULL " template serverhandle localhandle
system-nl
1*(fulldata system-nl)
"# END" system-nl
abridged-record = "# ABRIDGED " template serverhandle localhandle
system-nl
abridgeddata
"# END" system-nl
Daigle & Faltstrom Informational [Page 2]RFC 2958 application/whoispp-response Content-Type October 2000
summary-record = "# SUMMARY " serverhandle system-nl
summarydata
"# END" system-nl
handle-record = "# HANDLE " template serverhandle localhandle
system-nl
server-to-ask = "# SERVER-TO-ASK " serverhandle system-nl
server-to-askdata
"# END" system-nl
fulldata = " " attributename ": " attributevalue
abridgeddata = " " 0*( attributevalue / tab )
summarydata = " Matches: " number system-nl
[" Referrals: " number system-nl]
" Templates: " template 0*( system-nl "-"
template)
server-to-ask-data = " Server-Handle:" serverhandle system-nl
" Host-Name: " hostname system-nl
" Host-Port: " number system-nl
[" Protocol: " prot system-nl]
0*(" " labelstring ": " labelstring system-nl)
attributename = 1*attrbyte
attrbyte = <%d33-127 except specialbyte>
attributevalue = longstring
template = labelstring
serverhandle = labelstring
localhandle = labelstring
hostname = labelstring
prot = labelstring
longstring = bytestring 0*( nl ( "+" / "-" ) bytestring )
bytestring = 0*charbyte
labelstring = 0*restrictedbyte
Daigle & Faltstrom Informational [Page 3]RFC 2958 application/whoispp-response Content-Type October 2000
restrictedbyte = <%d32-%d255 except specialbyte>
charbyte = <%d32-%d255 except nl>
specialbyte = ":" / " " / tab / nl
tab = %d09
mnl = 1*system-nl
system-nl = nl [ 1*(message nl) ]
nl = %d13 %d10
message = [1*( messagestart "-" bytestring nl)]
messagestart " " bytestring nl
messagestart = "% " digit digit digit
goodmessage = [1*( goodmessagestart "-" bytestring nl)]
goodmessagestart " " bytestring nl
goodmessagestart= "% 200"
messagestart = "% " digit digit digit
badmessage = [1*( badmessagestart "-" bytestring nl)]
badmessagestart " " bytestring nl
badmessagestart = "% 5" digit digit
endmessage = endmessageclose
endmessageclose = [endmessagestart " " bytestring nl]
byemessage
endmessagestart = "% 226"
byemessage = byemessagestart " " bytestring nl
endmessagestart = "% 203"
number = 1*( digit )
digit = "0" / "1" / "2" / "3" / "4" / "5" / "6" / "7"
/ "8" / "9"
Daigle & Faltstrom Informational [Page 4]RFC 2958 application/whoispp-response Content-Type October 2000
3. Security Considerations
Security issues are discussed in section 1.
4. References
[ALVE95] Alvestrand H., "Tags for the Identification of Languages",
RFC 1766, March 1995.
[RFC2234] Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
Specifications: ABNF", RFC 2234, November 1997.
[RFC2957] Daigle, L. and P. Faltstrom, "The application/whoispp-query
Content-Type", RFC 2957, October 2000.
[RFC1835] Deutsch, P., Schoultz R., Faltstrom P. and C. Weider,
"Architecture of the WHOIS++ service", RFC 1835, August
1995.
[HARR85] Harrenstein, K., Stahl, M. and E. Feinler, "NICNAME/WHOIS",
RFC 954, October 1985.
[POST82] Postel J., "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol", STD 10, RFC
821, August 1982.
[IIIR] Weider C. and P. Deutsch, "A Vision of an Integrated
Internet Information Service", RFC 1727, December 1994.
[WINDX] Weider, C., Fullton J. and S. Spero, "Architecture of the
Whois++ Index Service", RFC 1913, February 1996.
5. Authors' Addresses
Leslie L. Daigle
Thinking Cat Enterprises
Email: leslie@thinkingcat.com
Patrik Faltstrom
Cisco Systems Inc
170 W Tasman Drive SJ-13/2
San Jose CA 95134
USA
EMail: paf@cisco.com
URL: http://www.cisco.com
Daigle & Faltstrom Informational [Page 5]RFC 2958 application/whoispp-response Content-Type October 2000
6. Full Copyright Statement
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000). All Rights Reserved.
This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
English.
The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.
This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
"AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Acknowledgement
Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
Internet Society.
Daigle & Faltstrom Informational [Page 6]
