RFC2957

Network Working Group L. Daigle Request for Comments: 2957 Thinking Cat Enterprises Category: Informational P. Faltstrom

                                                   Cisco Systems Inc.
                                                         October 2000

           The application/whoispp-query 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 (RFC 1835) queries within MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) (RFC 2046) media types. The intention of this document, in conjunction with RFC 2958 is to enable MIME-enabled mail software, and other systems using Internet media types, to carry out Whois++ transactions.

MIME Registration Information

To: [email protected] Subject: Registration of MIME media type application/whoispp-query

MIME Type name: Application

MIME subtype name: whoispp-query

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
                       [email protected]

Intended usage: common

whoispp-query Syntax

The following grammar, which uses BNF-like notation as defined in RFC2234 defines the set of acceptable input to a Whois++ server. As such, it describes the expected structure of a whoispp-query 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.

whois-command = ( system-command / terms [":" globalcnstrnts] )

                   nl

system-command = "constraints" / "describe" / "commands" /

                   "polled-by" / "polled-for" / "version" / "list" /
                   "show" [1*sp bytestring] / "help" [1*sp
                   bytestring] / "?" [bytestring]

terms = and-expr *("or" and-expr)

and-expr = not-expr *("and" not-expr)

not-expr = ["not"] (term / ( "(" terms ")" ))

term = ( generalterm / specificterm / combinedterm )

                   localcnstrnts

generalterm = bytestring

specificterm = specificname "=" bytestring

specificname = "handle" / "value" / "template"

combinedterm = attributename "=" bytestring

globalcnstrnts = globalcnstrnt *(";" globalcnstrnt)

globalcnstrnt = "format" "=" format / "maxfull" "=" 1*digit /

                   "maxhits" "=" 1*digit / "case" "=" casevalue /
                   "search" "=" searchvalue / opt-globalcnst

opt-globalcnst = "authenticate" "=" auth-method / "language" "="

                   language / "incharset" "=" characterset /
                   "outcharset" "=" characterset / "ignore" "="
                   attriblist / "include" "=" attriblist

localcnstrnts = 0*(";" localcnstrnt)

localcnstrnt = "case" "=" casevalue / "search" "=" searchvalue

format = "full" / "abridged" / "handle" / "summary" /

                   "server-to-ask"

auth-method = bytestring

language = <The language code defined in RFC1766 [ALVE95]>

characterset = "us-ascii" / "iso-8859-1" / "iso-8859-2" / "iso-

                   8859-3" / "iso-8859-4" / "iso-8859-5" / "iso-
                   8859-6" / "iso-8859-7" / "iso-8859-8" / "iso-
                   8859-9" / "iso-8859-10" / "UNICODE-1-1-UTF-8" /
                   "UNICODE-2-0-UTF-8" "UTF-8"

                     ;"UTF-8" is as defined in RFC2279.  This is
                     ;the character set label that should be used
                     ;for UTF encoded information; the labels
                     ;"UNICODE-2-0-UTF-8" and "UNICODE-1-1-UTF-8"
                     ;are retained primarily for compatibility with
                     ;older Whois++ servers (and as outlined in
                     ;RFC2279).

searchvalue = "exact" / "substring" / "regex" / "fuzzy" /

                   "lstring"

casevalue = "ignore" / "consider"

bytestring = 0*charbyte

attributename = 1*attrbyte

attriblist = attributename 0*("," attributename)

charbyte = "\" specialbyte / normalbyte

normalbyte = <%d33-255, except specialbyte>

attrbyte = <%d33-127 except specialbyte> /

                                          "\" <specialbyte except
                   ":" " " tab nl>

specialbyte = " " / tab / "=" / "," / ":" / ";" / "\" /

                                          "*" / "." / "(" / ")" /
                   "[" / "]" / "^" /
                                          "$" / "!" / "?"

tab = %d09 sp = %d32 ; space

digit = "0" / "1" / "2" / "3" / "4" /

                                          "5" / "6" / "7" / "8" /
                   "9"

nl = %d13 %d10 ; CR LF

NOTE: Blanks that are significant to a query must be escaped. The following characters, when significant to the query, may be preceded and/or followed by a single blank:

 : ; , ( ) = !

Security Considerations

Security issues are discussed in section 1.

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.

RFC2958 Daigle, L. and P. Faltstrom, "The application/whoispp-

         response Content-type", RFC 2958, October 2000.

RFC1835 Deutsch, P., Schoultz, R., Faltstrom, P. and C. Weider,

         "Architecture of the WHOIS++ service", RFC 1835, August
         1995.

RFC2046 Freed, N. and N. Borenstein, "Multipurpose Internet Mail

         Extensions (MIME) Part Two: Media Types", RFC 2046,
         November 1996.

[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.

RFC2279 Yergeau F., " UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO 10646",

         RFC 2279, January 1998.

Authors' Addresses

Leslie L. Daigle Thinking Cat Enterprises

Email: [email protected]

Patrik Faltstrom Cisco Systems Inc 170 W Tasman Drive SJ-13/2 San Jose CA 95134 USA

EMail: [email protected] URL: http://www.cisco.com

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