RFC 812 (rfc812) - Page 2 of 3

NICNAME/WHOIS

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RFC 812                                                     1 March 1982
                                                           NICNAME/WHOIS
                                                                        
                                                                        
EXISTING USER PROGRAMS

   NICNAME has been chosen as the global name for the user
   program, although some sites may choose to use the more
   familiar name of "WHOIS".  There are versions of NICNAME for
   Tenex, Tops-20, and Unix.  The Tenex and Tops-20 programs are
   written in assembly language (FAIL/MACRO), and the Unix
   version is written in C.  They are easy to invoke, taking one
   argument which is passed directly to the NICNAME server at
   SRI-NIC.  Normally it is best to use the NIC-supplied
   programs, if possible, since the protocol will continue to
   evolve.  Contact NIC@SRI-NIC for copies.

COMMAND LINES AND REPLIES

   A command line is normally a single name specification.  The
   easiest way to obtain the most recent documentation on name
   specifications is to give the server a command line consisting
   of "?" (that is, a question-mark alone as the name
   specification).  The response from the NICNAME server will
   list all possible formats that can be used.

   The responses are not currently intended to be
   machine-readable; the information is meant to be passed back
   directly to a human user.  The following three examples will
   illustrate the use of NICNAME.

Command line: ?
Response:
      Please enter a name or a handle ("ident"), such as "Smith"
   or "SRI-NIC".  Starting with a period forces a name-only
   search;
   starting with exclamation point forces handle-only.  Examples:
      Smith                   [looks for name or handle SMITH ]
      !SRI-NIC                [looks for handle SRI-NIC only  ]
      .Smith, John            [looks for name JOHN SMITH only ]
   Adding "..." to the argument will match anything from that
   point,
   e.g. "ZU..." will match ZUL, ZUM, etc.
      To have the ENTIRE membership list of a group or
   organization,
   if you are asking about a group or org, shown with the record,
   use
   an asterisk character "*" directly preceding the given
   argument.
   [CAUTION: If there are a lot of members this will take a long
   time!]
   You may of course use exclamation point and asterisk, or a
   period
   and asterisk together.
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