Finger URL, second cut

Reed Wade (wade@cs.utk.edu)
Tue, 23 Aug 1994 22:52:03 -0400


After looking over the finger rfc again and assimilating
comments I've made some changes to my original finger URL
proposal.

Reed Wade
---------
wade@cs.utk.edu -- http://www.netlib.org/utk/people/ReedWade.html

Finger URL

finger://hostname/[W/][username][hostlist]

hostlist ::= @hostname | @hostname{hostlist}

finger://cs.utk.edu/@garlic
finger://cs.utk.edu/W/wade@honk@garlic
finger://cs.utk.edu/W/ <-- these are different,
finger://cs.utk.edu/W <-- here W is the username
finger://cs.utk.edu/wade

Encoded CR's and LF's are not permitted in any part of the URL.

If the "W/" element is present then the finger request is preceded
by the /W (or /W<sp> as required) per rfc1128.

Returned Data Interpretation:

Existing finger servers return user information in unpredictable
ways. There are cases where it is not possible to get information
on only a single user. Interpreting returned data as plain text
is the only reasonable thing to do. Instead of attempting to wedge
more utility into finger, whois++ or http should be used.