RFC 1835 (rfc1835) - Page 3 of 41

Architecture of the WHOIS++ service

RFC 1835          Architecture of the WHOIS++ service        August 1995


   Appendix A - Some Sample Queries .......................... 31
   Appendix B - Some sample responses ........................ 31
   Appendix C - Sample responses to system commands .......... 33
   Appendix D - Sample whois++ session ....................... 35
   Appendix E - System messages .............................. 36
   Appendix F - The WHOIS++ BNF Grammar ...................... 38
   Appendix G - Description of Regular expressions ........... 40

1.  Part I - WHOIS++ Overview

1.1.  Purpose and Motivation

   The current NIC WHOIS service [HARR85] is used to provide a very
   limited directory service, serving information about a small number
   of Internet users registered with the DDN NIC. Over time the basic
   service has been expanded to serve additional information and similar
   services have also been set up on other hosts.  Unfortunately, these
   additions and extensions have been done in an ad hoc and
   uncoordinated manner.

   The basic WHOIS information model represents each individual record
   as a Rolodex-like collection of text. Each record has a unique
   identifier (or handle), but otherwise is assumed to have little
   structure. The current service allows users to issue searches for
   individual strings within individual records, as well as searches for
   individual record handles using a very simple query-response
   protocol.

   Despite its utility, the current NIC WHOIS service cannot function as
   a general White Pages service for the entire Internet. Given the
   inability of a single server to offer guaranteed response or
   reliability, the huge volume of traffic that a full scale directory
   service will generate and the potentially huge number of users of
   such a service, such a trivial architecture is obviously unsuitable
   for the current Internet's needs for information services.

   This document describes the architecture and protocol for WHOIS++, a
   simple, distributed and extensible information lookup service based
   upon a small set of extensions to the original WHOIS information
   model.  These extensions allow the new service to address the
   community's needs for a simple directory service, yet the extensible
   architecture is expected to also allow it to find application in a
   number of other information service areas.

   Added features include an extension to the trivial WHOIS data model
   and query protocol and a companion extensible, distributed indexing
   service. A number of other options have also been added, like boolean
   operators, more powerful search constraints and search methods, and



Deutsch, et al              Standards Track