Re: New Standard for Whois

On Tue, 23 Jan 2001, Randy Bush wrote:

> > If the Whois stays on Port 43, backwards compatibility is maintained
> > by the following approach.
> > 
> >     1. Accept a connection.
> >     2. Parse the result.  If XML has been received, go to step 4.
> >     3. Not XML: as per existing Whois standard, return the result and
> >        close the connection.
> >     4. XML has been received: must be the new protocol.  Maintain the
> >        connection, and use the RRP.  Access will probably be
> >        restricted, and it may not be possible to modify objects.
> 
> what if mirjam and i have an existing application running over
> whois/43 that uses xml?

The proposal is to format the Whois *query* as XML.  The only way an
existing Whois server can do this and still be RFC 954 compliant (now a
draft standard for over 15 years!) is by sending the entire XML document
as a single line:

      Connect to the SRI-NIC service host at TCP service port 43
      (decimal).

      Send a single "command line", ending with <CRLF> (ASCII CR and
      LF).

      Receive information in response to the command line.  The server
      closes its connection as soon as the output is finished.

While possible, does this ever really happen?  I expect not.

Not that this means that I think the proposal is a good idea....

--
Shane