On 09/03/2017 07:25, Tor Arntsen wrote:
I did an strace and I can confirm that the Linux 'whois' client that I
used from those various sites sends '-T dn' (or actually -T dn,ace)
write(3, "-T dn,ace uni-stuttgart.de\r\n", 28) = 28
I can't see where this whois originates from, it has version number
'5.2.<something>'. Its man page refers to RFC 3912, but RFC 3912 says
nothing about -T. RFC 3912's single example wouldn't have worked in
this case. So I wonder what replaced RFC 3912, and why there's a
mismatch between documentation and functionality.
RFC 3912 is still the current RFC for whois; it's not been replaced.
But there are two other related information systems, Rwhois (Referral
whois, RFC1714, RFC2167) and whois++ (structured whois, RFC1835,
RFC1913, RFC1914). They're more sophisticated, of course, but I don't
know of any real-life examples and references I've found suggest they
were never deployed.
Rwhois runs on port 4321 by default and its syntax is nothing like that
used by DENIC, while whois++ runs on port 63. Being an extension to
provide structured responses to a range of template-based queries (it
too can perform recursive queries on behalf of a client, like rwhois),
its syntax also looks nothing like normal whois or that used by DENIC.
However, one of the above-mentioned RFCs does comment, wrt whois, that
"Unfortunately, these additions and extensions have been done in an ad
hoc and uncoordinated manner." Uh-huh :-)
--
Pete
Pete Turnbull
