RFC 779

RFC 779: TELNET SEND-LOCATION Option 🎀

okay bestie, the title block first so we know who's who 💖

• Network Working Group 🌸
• Request for Comments: 779 📜
• Author: E. Killian, LLL ✨
• Date: April 1981 📅
• Category and status: not listed in this header 🤷
• Obsoletes and updates: neither is listed in this header 🫶

1. Command name and code 💅

so the option is called SEND-LOCATION and it's code 23 🦋

SEND-LOCATION   23

2. Command meanings 🔥

okay this is the main part, so let's go through the commands one by one 👑

• IAC WILL SEND-LOCATION 💜: the sender REQUESTS or AGREES to use the SEND-LOCATION option to send the user's location.
• IAC WON'T SEND-LOCATION 🙅: the sender REFUSES to use the SEND-LOCATION option.
• IAC DO SEND-LOCATION 🌈: the sender REQUESTS that, or AGREES to have, the other side use SEND-LOCATION commands to send the user's location.
• IAC DON'T SEND-LOCATION 💀: the sender DEMANDS the other side not use the SEND-LOCATION option.
• IAC SB SEND-LOCATION <location> IAC SE ✨: the sender specifies the user's location to the other side through a SEND-LOCATION subnegotiation. <location> is a sequence of ASCII printable characters, and it ends with the IAC SE.

3. Default 🌙

the defaults are the two "no" options, and yes they're both listed here 🍓

WON'T SEND-LOCATION

DON'T SEND-LOCATION

4. Motivation for the option 💭

so here's the tea. A lot of network sites now have a listing of who's logged in, showing their names and locations (see the NAME/FINGER protocol, RFC 742) 👀 The location is super useful for finding someone if they're nearby, or for calling them, since a nearby phone number is often included 📞

BUT, for users who log in over the network, the location printed is usually just the originating site name 😭 That's where this option comes in. It lets the user's TELNET program send the user's location to the server TELNET, so it can be shown next to the site name 🧚 This functionality is already in the SUPDUP protocol (RFC 734), so this option is basically bringing that energy to TELNET 💖

5. Description of the option ✨

when the user TELNET program knows the user's location, it should offer to send it to the server TELNET by sending IAC WILL SEND-LOCATION 🦋 If the server's system can make use of this info (as the ITS sites can), then the server replies with IAC DO SEND-LOCATION 🎀 After that, the user TELNET is free to send the location in a subnegotiation whenever it wants 🫶💜