RFC 811 (rfc811) - Page 2 of 4
Hostnames Server
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
1 March 1982
RFC 811 Hostnames Server
Response Keys:
ERR (entry not found, nature of error follows)
NET (entry found, rest of entry follows)
GATEWAY (entry found, rest of entry follows)
HOST (entry found, rest of entry follows)
BEGIN (followed by multiple entries)
END (done with BEGIN block of entries)
More keywords will be added as new needs are recognized. A
more detailed description of the allowed requests/responses
will follow.
PROTOCOL
To access this server from a program, connect to service host
(SRI-NIC)
TCP: port 101 decimal
NCP: socket 101 decimal for ICP
send the information query, and await the response.
Note: Care should be taken to interpret the nature of the
reply (e.g, single record or multiple record), so that no
confusion about the state of the reply results. An "ALL"
request will likely return several hundred or more records of
all types (see RFC 810), whereas "HNAME" or "HADDR" will
usually return one HOST record, or "BEGIN:", list of host
records, "END:", if there is more than one match.
QUERY/RESPONSE EXAMPLES
1. HNAME Query - Given a name, find the entry or entries that
match
the name. For example:
HNAME SRI-NIC ;where is a carriage
return/
linefeed, and 'SRI-NIC' is a
host name
The likely response is:
HOST : 10.0.0.73 : SRI-NIC,NIC : FOONLY-F3 : TENEX : NCP :
A response may stretch across more than one line.
Continuation lines always begin with at least one space.
For example:
HOST : 10.0.0.73 : SRI-NIC,NIC : FOONLY-F3 : TENEX : NCP :