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 (RFC1835)
queries within MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) (RFC
2046) media types. The intention of this document, in conjunction
with RFC2958 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-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
leslie@thinkingcat.com

Intended usage: common

2. 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:

: ; , ( ) = !

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.

[RFC2958] Daigle, L. and P. Faltstrom, "The application/whoispp-
response Content-type", RFC2958, October 2000.

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

[RFC2046] Freed, N. and N. Borenstein, "Multipurpose Internet Mail
Extensions (MIME) Part Two: Media Types", RFC2046,
November 1996.

[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.

[RFC2279] Yergeau F., " UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO 10646",
RFC2279, January 1998.

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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