RFC 954

NICNAME/WHOIS

📅 published October 1985, from ietf

NICNAME/WHOIS 💖

Okay bestie, so this is RFC 954 🎀 and the title is NICNAME/WHOIS ✨. It was written by K. Harrenstien (SRI), M. Stahl (SRI), and E. Feinler (SRI) back in October 1985 🦋. It obsoletes RFC 812, and the status part says it's an update of that one too 💅.

STATUS OF THIS MEMO 📜

Okay so this RFC is the official spec for the NICNAME/WHOIS protocol 👑. It describes both the protocol and the service. It's an update of RFC 812, and distribution of this memo is unlimited 🌈.

INTRODUCTION 🌸

The NICNAME/WHOIS Server is a TCP transaction based query/response server, and it's giving directory service for the whole network 🧚. It runs on the SRI-NIC machine at 26.0.0.73 or 10.0.0.51, and it's one of a series of internet name services maintained by the DDN Network Information Center (NIC) at SRI International on behalf of the Defense Communications Agency (DCA) 💜. Internet users can reach it from user programs on local hosts, and it delivers the full name, U.S. mailing address, telephone number, and network mailbox for DDN users who are registered in the NIC database 📬.

Also, the server together with the corresponding WHOIS Database can do online look-up of individuals or their online mailboxes, network organizations, DDN nodes and associated hosts, and TAC telephone numbers 🔍. It's designed to be user-friendly and the info comes back in human-readable format, which is so iconic 🫶. DCA strongly encourages network hosts to give their users access to this network service 🔥.

WHO SHOULD BE IN THE DATABASE 🎀

DCA asks that each individual with a directory on an ARPANET or MILNET host, who is capable of passing traffic across the DoD Internet, be registered in the NIC WHOIS Database 💅. MILNET TAC users must be registered in the database 😭.

To register, send an electronic mail to REGISTRAR@SRI-NIC.ARPA with your full name, middle initial, U.S. mailing address (including mail stop and full explanation of abbreviations and acronyms), ZIP code, telephone (including Autovon and FTS, if available), and one network mailbox 💌. If you need help registering, contact the DDN Network Information Center at REGISTRAR@SRI-NIC.ARPA or (800) 235-3155 📞.

PROTOCOL 🦋

Here's how to access the NICNAME/WHOIS server, bestie 💖:

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 🙈.

EXISTING USER PROGRAMS 💻

NICNAME is the global name for the user program, although lots of sites like the more familiar name "WHOIS" 🍓. There are versions of the NICNAME user program 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're easy to invoke: they take one argument, which gets passed directly to the NICNAME server at SRI-NIC 🫶. To get copies of the program, contact NIC@SRI-NIC.ARPA 💜.

COMMAND LINES AND REPLIES 🌈

A command line is normally a single name specification 💅. The specification formats will evolve with time, so the best way to get the most recent docs on name specifications is to send the server a command line of ?<CRLF> (that's a question-mark alone as the name specification) 🔍. The response will list all the possible formats you can use 📜. The responses aren't currently intended to be machine-readable, since the info is meant to go straight back to a human user 🙈. The following three examples show how NICNAME was used as of October 1985 🦋.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

   Command line: ?
   Response:

   Please enter a name or a NIC handle, 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 search for mailboxes, use one of these forms:

      Smith@    [looks for mailboxes with username SMITH]
      @Host     [looks for mailboxes on HOST]
      Smith@Host
                [Looks for mailboxes with username SMITH on HOST]

   To obtain the entire membership list of a group or organization,
   or a list of all authorized users of a host, precede the name of
   the host or organization by an asterisk, i.e. *SRI-NIC. [CAUTION:
   If there are a lot of members, this will take a long time!]  You
   may use exclamation point and asterisk, or a period and asterisk
   together.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Command line: fischer
Response:

Fischer, Charles (CF17)     fischer@UWISC        (608) 262-1204
Fischer, Herman (HF)        HFischer@USC-ECLB    (818) 902-5139
Fischer, Jeffery H. (JHF1)  FISCHER@LL-XN        (617) 863-5500
                                                 ext 4403 or 4689
Fischer, Kenneth (KF8)      SAC.SIUBO@USC-ISIE   (402) 294-5161
                                                 (AV)  271-5161
Fischer, Marty (MF28)       MFISCHER@DCA-EMS     (703) 437-2344
Fischer, Michael J. (MJF)   FISCHER@YALE         (203) 436-0744
Fischer, Nancy C. (NANCY)   FISCHER@SRI-NIC      (415) 859-2539
Fischer, Richard A. (RAF4)  Fisher Richa@LLL-MFE (415) 422-5032

To single out any individual entry, repeat the command using the argument !HANDLE instead of NAME, where the handle is in parentheses following the name 🎯.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

   Command line: !nancy
   Response:

      Fischer, Nancy C. (NANCY)    FISCHER@SRI-NIC SRI International
      Telecommunication Sciences Center
      333 Ravenswood Avenue, EJ289
      Menlo Park, California 94025
      Phone: (415) 859-2539
      MILNET TAC user

---------------------------------------------------------------------

BIBLIOGRAPHY 📚

Harrenstien, K., and White, V., "NICNAME/WHOIS," RFC-812, Network Information Center, SRI International, March 1982. 💖
Harrenstien, K., "NAME/FINGER," RFC-742, Network Information Center, SRI International, December 1977. ✨

📦 where this page comes from

ietf: rfc954 1985-10
💖 girlified by claude-haiku-5-5 on 2026-10-19: a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms