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 RFC2957 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

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

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

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"

3. Security Considerations

Security issues are discussed in section 1.

4. References

[ALVE95] Alvestrand H., "Tags for the Identification of Languages",
RFC1766, March 1995.

[RFC2234] Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
Specifications: ABNF", RFC2234, November 1997.

[RFC2957] Daigle, L. and P. Faltstrom, "The application/whoispp-query
Content-Type", RFC2957, October 2000.

[RFC1835] Deutsch, P., Schoultz R., Faltstrom P. and C. Weider,
"Architecture of the WHOIS++ service", RFC1835, August
1995.

[HARR85] Harrenstein, K., Stahl, M. and E. Feinler, "NICNAME/WHOIS",
RFC954, 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", RFC1727, December 1994.

[WINDX] Weider, C., Fullton J. and S. Spero, "Architecture of the
Whois++ Index Service", RFC1913, 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

6. Full Copyright Statement

Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000). All Rights Reserved.

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Acknowledgement

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