2004/id/draft-ietf-uri-url-finger-00.txt


IETF URI Working Group
Internet-Draft
draft-ietf-uri-url-finger-00.txt
Expires August 15, 1995

                             finger URL Specification

Status of This Memo

     This document is an Internet-Draft.  Internet-Drafts are working
     documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its
     areas, and its working groups.  Note that other groups may also
     distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts.

     Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six
     months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other
     documents at any time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-
     Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as
     ``work in progress.''

     To learn the current status of any Internet-Draft, please check
     the ``1id-abstracts.txt'' listing contained in the Internet-
     Drafts Shadow Directories on ftp.is.co.za (Africa),
     nic.nordu.net (Europe), munnari.oz.au (Pacific Rim),
     ds.internic.net (US East Coast), or ftp.isi.edu (US West Coast).

Abstract

A new URL scheme, "finger", is defined. It allows client software to
request information from finger servers that conform to RFC 1288.

Description

Many Internet hosts publish information through the finger protocol, as
described in RFC 1288. In order to allow that information to be located
in a standard fashion, a "finger" URL is needed.

The "finger" URL has the form:

     finger:<request>

where <request> is any request that conforms to the query specification
given in RFC 1288. The interpretation of the finger request should be left
to the receiving host.

Clients sending finger queries should never send CR or LF characters.
All requests must be sent to the standard TCP finger port, 79 (decimal). The
client should look for requests that do not conform to RFC 1288 and reject
them.

Encoding

RFC1738 requires that many characters in URLs be encoded. This affects
the finger scheme in that some requests may contain space (" ", ASCII
hex 20) and forward slash ("/", ASCII hex 2F). These characters must be
encoded in the URL following the rules in RFC 1738.

Examples

Typically, a finger URL will be something like:

<finger:nasanews@space.mit.edu>

However, note that RFC 1288 also permits requests such as:

<finger:someuser@host1.bigstate.edu@host2.bigstate.edu>

and:

<finger:%2FW%20someuser@host1.bigstate.edu>

Security

RFC 1288 contains a detailed section on both client and host security that
should be read by anyone implementing clients that allow the finger URL.
Specifically, client software should check for any unsafe characters and
character strings before displaying the results of a query.

Author contact information:

Paul E. Hoffman
Proper Publishing
127 Segre Place
Santa Cruz, CA  95060 USA
Tel: 408-426-6222
phoffman@proper.com


1
2	IETF URI Working Group
3	Internet-Draft
4	draft-ietf-uri-url-finger-00.txt
5	Expires August 15, 1995
6
7	finger URL Specification
8
9	Status of This Memo
10
11	This document is an Internet-Draft. Internet-Drafts are working
12	documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its
13	areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also
14	distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts.
15
16	Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six
17	months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other
18	documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-
19	Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as
20	``work in progress.''
21
22	To learn the current status of any Internet-Draft, please check
23	the ``1id-abstracts.txt'' listing contained in the Internet-
24	Drafts Shadow Directories on ftp.is.co.za (Africa),
25	nic.nordu.net (Europe), munnari.oz.au (Pacific Rim),
26	ds.internic.net (US East Coast), or ftp.isi.edu (US West Coast).
27
28	Abstract
29
30	A new URL scheme, "finger", is defined. It allows client software to
31	request information from finger servers that conform to RFC 1288.
32
33	Description
34
35	Many Internet hosts publish information through the finger protocol, as
36	described in RFC 1288. In order to allow that information to be located
37	in a standard fashion, a "finger" URL is needed.
38
39	The "finger" URL has the form:
40
41	finger:<request>
42
43	where <request> is any request that conforms to the query specification
44	given in RFC 1288. The interpretation of the finger request should be left
45	to the receiving host.
46
47	Clients sending finger queries should never send CR or LF characters.
48	All requests must be sent to the standard TCP finger port, 79 (decimal). The
49	client should look for requests that do not conform to RFC 1288 and reject
50	them.
51
52	Encoding
53
54	RFC1738 requires that many characters in URLs be encoded. This affects
55	the finger scheme in that some requests may contain space (" ", ASCII
56	hex 20) and forward slash ("/", ASCII hex 2F). These characters must be
57	encoded in the URL following the rules in RFC 1738.
58
59	Examples
60
61	Typically, a finger URL will be something like:
62
63	<finger:nasanews@space.mit.edu>
64
65	However, note that RFC 1288 also permits requests such as:
66
67	<finger:someuser@host1.bigstate.edu@host2.bigstate.edu>
68
69	and:
70
71	<finger:%2FW%20someuser@host1.bigstate.edu>
72
73	Security
74
75	RFC 1288 contains a detailed section on both client and host security that
76	should be read by anyone implementing clients that allow the finger URL.
77	Specifically, client software should check for any unsafe characters and
78	character strings before displaying the results of a query.
79
80	Author contact information:
81
82	Paul E. Hoffman
83	Proper Publishing
84	127 Segre Place
85	Santa Cruz, CA 95060 USA
86	Tel: 408-426-6222
87	phoffman@proper.com
88
89