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.ds CH Dictionary Server Protocol
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.tl 'INTERNET-DRAFT''U. North Carolina, Chapel Hill'
.tl 'Category: Informational''B. Martin'
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A Dictionary Server Protocol
<draft-rfced-info-faith-02.txt>
.RS
.HU "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).
.HU "Authors' Note"
[[This document has not yet been submitted or accepted as an official
RFC. Two independent server implementations have been completed, one
at dict://dict.miranda.org:2628 and the other at
dict://proteus.cs.unc.edu:2628. This note should be deleted when this
memo is assigned an RFC number.]]
.HU "Abstract"
The Dictionary Server Protocol (DICT) is a TCP transaction based
query/response protocol that allows a client to access dictionary
definitions from a set of natural language dictionary databases.
.bp
.HU "Table of Contents"
.RE
.sp
.nf
.so rfc.toc
.fi
.RS
.HR 1 0 "Introduction"
For many years, the Internet community has relied on the "webster"
protocol for access to natural language definitions. The webster
protocol supports access to a single dictionary and (optionally) to a
single thesaurus. In recent years, the number of publicly available
webster servers on the Internet has dramatically decreased.
Fortunately, several freely-distributable dictionaries and lexicons
have recently become available on the Internet. However, these
freely-distributable databases are not accessible via a uniform
interface, and are not accessible from a single site. They are often
small and incomplete individually, but would collectively provide an
interesting and useful database of English words. Examples include
the Jargon file [JARGON], the WordNet database [WORDNET], MICRA's
version of the 1913 Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary [WEB1913],
and the Free Online Dictionary of Computing [FOLDOC]. Translating and
non-English dictionaries are also becoming available (for example, the
FOLDOC dictionary is being translated into Spanish).
The webster protocol is not suitable for providing access to a large
number of separate dictionary databases, and extensions to the current
webster protocol were not felt to be a clean solution to the
dictionary database problem.
The DICT protocol is designed to provide access to multiple databases.
Word definitions can be requested, the word index can be searched
(using an easily extended set of algorithms), information about the
server can be provided (e.g., which index search strategies are
supported, or which databases are available), and information about a
database can be provided (e.g., copyright, citation, or distribution
information). Further, the DICT protocol has hooks that can be used
to restrict access to some or all of the databases.
.HN 2 "Requirements"
In this document, we adopt the convention discussed in Section 1.3.2
of [RFC1122] of using the capitalized words MUST, REQUIRED, SHOULD,
RECOMMENDED, MAY, and OPTIONAL to define the significance of each
particular requirement specified in this document.
In brief: "MUST" (or "REQUIRED") means that the item is an absolute
requirement of the specification; "SHOULD" (or "RECOMMENDED") means
there may exist valid reasons for ignoring this item, but the full
implications should be understood before doing so; and "MAY" (or
"OPTIONAL") means that his item is optional, and may be omitted
without careful consideration.
.HN 1 "Protocol Overview"
.HN 2 "Link Level"
The DICT protocol assumes a reliable data stream such as provided by TCP.
When TCP is used, a DICT server listens on port 2628.
.\" (typically, webster servers listened on port 2627)
This server is only an interface between programs and the dictionary
databases. It does not perform any user interaction or presentation-level
functions.
.HN 2 "Lexical Tokens"
Commands and replies are composed of characters from the UCS character
set [ISO10646] using the UTF-8 [RFC2044] encoding. More specifically,
using the grammar conventions from [RFC822]:
.\".DS I 0
.nf
; ( Octal, Decimal.)
CHAR = <any UTF-8 character (1 to 6 octets)>
CTL = <any ASCII control ; ( 0- 37, 0.- 31.)
character and DEL> ; ( 177, 127.)
CR = <ASCII CR, carriage return> ; ( 15, 13.)
LF = <ASCII LF, linefeed> ; ( 12, 10.)
SPACE = <ASCII SP, space> ; ( 40, 32.)
HTAB = <ASCII HT, horizontal-tab> ; ( 11, 9.)
<"> = <ASCII quote mark> ; ( 42, 34.)
<'> = <ASCII single quote mark> ; ( 47, 39.)
CRLF = CR LF
WS = 1*(SPACE / HTAB)
dqstring = <"> *(dqtext/quoted-pair) <">
dqtext = <any CHAR except <">, "\\", and CTLs>
sqstring = <'> *(dqtext/quoted-pair) <'>
sqtext = <any CHAR except <'>, "\\", and CTLs>
quoted-pair = "\\" CHAR
atom = 1*<any CHAR except SPACE, CTLs, <'>, <">, and "\\">
string = *<dqstring / sqstring / quoted-pair>
word = *<atom / string>
description = *<word / WS>
text = *<word / WS>
.fi
.\".DE
.\" " for emacs
.\" for emacs
.HN 2 "Commands"
Commands consist of a command word followed by zero or more
parameters. Commands with parameters must separate the parameters
from each other and from the command by one or more space or tab
characters. Command lines must be complete with all required
parameters, and may not contain more than one command.
Each command line must be terminated by a CRLF.
The grammar for commands is:
.DS
command = cmd-word *<WS cmd-param>
cmd-word = atom
cmd-param = database / strategy / word
database = atom
strategy = atom
.DE
Commands are not case sensitive.
Command lines MUST NOT exceed 1024 characters in length, counting all
characters including spaces, separators, punctuation, and the trailing
CRLF. There is no provision for the continuation of command lines.
Since UTF-8 may encode a character using up to 6 octets, the command
line buffer MUST be able to accept up to 6144 octets.
.HN 2 "Responses"
Responses are of two kinds, status and textual.
.HN 3 "Status Responses"
Status responses indicate the server's response to the last command
received from the client.
Status response lines begin with a 3 digit numeric code which is sufficient
to distinguish all responses. Some of these may herald the subsequent
transmission of text.
.bp
The first digit of the response broadly indicates the success, failure, or
progress of the previous command (based generally on [RFC640,RFC821]):
.DS
1yz - Positive Preliminary reply
2yz - Positive Completion reply
3yz - Positive Intermediate reply
4yz - Transient Negative Completion reply
5yz - Permanent Negative Completion reply
.DE
The next digit in the code indicates the response category:
.DS
x0z - Syntax
x1z - Information (e.g., help)
x2z - Connections
x3z - Authentication
x4z - Unspecified as yet
x5z - DICT System (These replies indicate the status of the
receiver DICT system vis-a-vis the requested transfer
or other DICT system action.)
x8z - Nonstandard (private implementation) extensions
.DE
The exact response codes that should be expected from each command are
detailed in the description of that command.
Certain status responses contain parameters such as numbers and
strings. The number and type of such parameters is fixed for each
response code to simplify interpretation of the response. Other
status responses do not require specific text identifiers. Parameter
requirements are detailed in the description of relevant commands.
Except for specifically detailed parameters, the text following
response codes is server-dependent.
Parameters are separated from the numeric response code and from each
other by a single space.
All numeric parameters are decimal, and may
have leading zeros. All string parameters MUST conform to the "atom"
or "dqstring" grammar productions.
If no parameters are present, and the server implementation provides
no implementation-specific text, then there MAY or MAY NOT be a space
after the response code.
Response codes not specified in this standard may be used for any
installation-specific additional commands also not specified. These
should be chosen to fit the pattern of x8z specified above. The use
of unspecified response codes for standard commands is prohibited.
.HN 3 "General Status Responses"
In response to every command, the following general status responses
are possible:
.DS
500 Syntax error, command not recognized
501 Syntax error, illegal parameters
502 Command not implemented
503 Command parameter not implemented
420 Server temporarily unavailable
421 Server shutting down at operator request
.DE
.HN 3 "Text Responses"
Before text is sent a numeric status response line, using a 1yz code,
will be sent indicating text will follow. Text is sent as a series of
successive lines of textual matter, each terminated with a CRLF. A
single line containing only a period (decimal code 46, ".") is sent to
indicate the end of the text (i.e., the server will send a CRLF at the
end of the last line of text, a period, and another CRLF).
If a line of original text contained a period as the first character of the
line, that first period is doubled by the DICT server. Therefore, the
client must examine the first character of each line received. Those that
begin with two periods must have those two periods collapsed into one
period. Those that contain only a single period followed by a CRLF
indicate the end of the text response.
If the OPTION MIME command has been given, all textual responses will
be prefaced by a MIME header [RFC-1521] followed by a single blank
line (CRLF). See section 3.10.1 for more details on OPTION MIME.
Following a text response, a 2yz response code will be sent.
Text lines MUST NOT exceed 1024 characters in length, counting all
characters including spaces, separators, punctuation, the extra
initial period (if needed), and the trailing CRLF. Since UTF-8 may
encode a character using up to 6 octets, the text line input buffer
MUST be able to accept up to 6144 octets.
By default, the text of the definitions MUST be composed of characters
from the UCS character set [ISO10644] using the UTF-8 [RFC2044]
encoding. The UTF-8 encoding has the advantage of preserving the full
range of 7-bit US ASCII [USASCII] values. Clients and servers MUST
support UTF-8, even if only in some minimal fashion.
.HN 1 "Command and Response Details"
Below, each DICT command and appropriate responses are detailed. Each
command is shown in upper case for clarity, but the DICT server is
case-insensitive.
Except for the AUTH and SASLAUTH commands, every command described in
this section MUST be implemented by all DICT servers.
.HN 2 "Initial Connection"
When a client initially connects to a DICT server, a code 220 is sent if
the client's IP is allowed to connect:
.DS
220 text capabilities msg-id
.DE
The code 220 is a banner, usually containing host name and DICT server
version information.
The second-to-last sequence of characters in the banner is the
optional capabilities string, which will allow servers to declare
support for extensions to the DICT protocol. The capabilities string
is defined below:
.DS
capabilities = ["<" msg-atom *("." msg-atom) ">"]
msg-atom = 1*<any CHAR except SPACE, CTLs,
"<", ">", ".", and "\\">
.DE
Individual capabilities are described by a single msg-atom. For
example, the string <html.gzip> might be used to describe a server
that supports extensions which allow HTML or compressed output.
Capability names beginning with "x" or "X" are reserved for
experimental extensions, and SHOULD NOT be defined in any future DICT
protocol specification. Some of these capabilities may inform the
client that certain functionality is available or can be requested.
The following capabilities are currently defined:
.DS
mime The OPTION MIME command is supported
auth The AUTH command is supported
kerberos_v4 The SASL Kerberos version 4 mechanism is supported
gssapi The SASL GSSAPI [RFC2078] mechanism is supported
skey The SASL S/Key [RFC1760] mechanism is supported
external The SASL external mechanism is supported
.DE
The last sequence of characters in the banner is a msg-id, similar to
the format specified in [RFC822]. The simplified description is given
below:
.DS
msg-id = "<" spec ">" ; Unique message id
spec = local-part "@" domain
local-part = msg-atom *("." msg-atom)
domain = msg-atom *("." msg-atom)
.DE
Note that, in contrast to [RFC822], spaces and quoted pairs are not
allowed in the msg-id. This restriction makes the msg-id much easier
for the client to locate and parse but does not significantly decrease
any security benefits, since the msg-id may be arbitrarily long (as
bounded by the response length limits set forth elsewhere in this
document).
Note also that the open and close brackets are part of the msg-id and
should be included in the string that is used to compute the MD5
checksum.
This message id will be used by the client when formulating the
authentication string used in the AUTH command.
If the client's IP is not allowed to connect, then a code 530 is sent
instead:
.DS
530 Access denied
.DE
.bp
Transient failure responses are also possible:
.DS
420 Server temporarily unavailable
421 Server shutting down at operator request
.DE
For example, response code 420 should be used if the server cannot
currently fork a server process (or cannot currently obtain other resources
required to proceed with a usable connection), but expects to be able to
fork or obtain these resources in the near future.
Response code 421 should be used when the server has been shut down at
operator request, or when conditions indicate that the ability to service
more requests in the near future will be impossible. This may be used to
allow a graceful operator-mediated temporary shutdown of a server, or to
indicate that a well known server has been permanently removed from service
(in which case, the text message might provide more information).
.HN 2 "The DEFINE Command"
DEFINE database word
.Hn 3 "Description"
This command will look up the specified word in the specified
database. All DICT servers MUST implement this command.
If the database name is specified with an exclamation point (decimal
code 33, "!"), then all of the databases will be searched until a
match is found, and all matches in that database will be displayed.
If the database name is specified with a star (decimal code 42, "*"),
then all of the matches in all available databases will be displayed.
In both of these special cases, the databases will be searched in the
same order as that printed by the "SHOW DB" command.
If the word was not found, then status code 552 is sent.
If the word was found, then status code 150 is sent, indicating that one or
more definitions follow.
For each definition, status code 151 is sent, followed by the textual
body of the definition. The first three space-delimited parameters
following status code 151 give the word retrieved, the name of the
database (which is the same as the first column of the SHOW DB
command), and a short description for the database (which is the same
as the second column of the SHOW DB command). The short name is
suitable for printing as:
.DS
From name:
.DE
before the definition is printed. This provides source information for the
user.
The textual body of each definition is terminated with a CRLF period CRLF
sequence.
After all of the definitions have been sent, status code 250 is sent. This
command can provide optional timing information (which is server dependent
and is not intended to be parsable by the client). This additional
information is useful when debugging and tuning the server.
.Hn 3 "Responses"
.DS
550 Invalid database, use "SHOW DB" for list of databases
552 No match
150 n definitions retrieved - definitions follow
151 word database name - text follows
250 ok (optional timing information here)
.DE
Response codes 150 and 151 require special parameters as part of their
text. The client can use these parameters to display information on
the user's terminal.
For code 150, parameters 1 indicates the number of definitions
retrieved.
For code 151, parameter 1 is the word retrieved, parameter 2 is the
database name (the first name as shown by "SHOW DB") from which the
definition has been retrieved, and parameter 3 is the the short
database description (the second column of the "SHOW DB" command).
.bp
.HN 2 "The MATCH Command"
MATCH database strategy word
.Hn 3 "Description"
This command searches an index for the dictionary, and reports words
which were found using a particular strategy. Not all strategies are
useful for all dictionaries, and some dictionaries may support
additional search strategies (e.g., reverse lookup). All DICT servers
MUST implement the MATCH command, and MUST support the "exact" and
"prefix" strategies. These are easy to implement and are generally
the most useful. Other strategies are server dependent.
The "exact" strategy matches a word exactly, although different
servers may treat non-alphanumeric data differently. We have found
that a case-insensitive comparison which ignores non-alphanumeric
characters and which folds whitespace is useful for English-language
dictionaries. Other comparisons may be more appropriate for other
languages or when using extended character sets.
The "prefix" strategy is similar to "exact", except that it only
compares the first part of the word.
Different servers may implement these algorithms differently. The
requirement is that strategies with the names "exact" and "prefix"
exist so that a simple client can use them.
Other strategies that might be considered by a server implementor are
matches based on substring, suffix, regular expressions, soundex
[KNUTH73], and Levenshtein [PZ85] algorithms. These last two are
especially useful for correcting spelling errors. Other useful
strategies perform some sort of "reverse" lookup (i.e., by searching
definitions to find the word that the query suggests).
If the database name is specified with an exclamation point (decimal
code 33, "!"), then all of the databases will be searched until a
match is found, and all matches in that database will be displayed.
If the database name is specified with a star (decimal code 42, "*"),
then all of the matches in all available databases will be displayed.
In both of these special cases, the databases will be searched in the
same order as that printed by the "SHOW DB" command.
If the strategy is specified using a period (decimal code 46, "."),
then the word will be matched using a server-dependent default
strategy, which should be the best strategy available for interactive
spell checking. This is usually a derivative of the Levenshtein
algorithm [PZ85].
If no matches are found in any of the searched databases, then status code
552 will be returned.
Otherwise, status code 152 will be returned followed by a list of matched
words, one per line, in the form:
.DS
database word
.DE
This makes the responses directly useful in a DEFINE command.
The textual body of the match list is terminated with a CRLF period CRLF
sequence.
Following the list, status code 250 is sent, which may include
server-specific timing and statistical information, as discussed in the
section on the DEFINE command.
.Hn 3 "Responses"
.DS
550 Invalid database, use "SHOW DB" for list of databases
551 Invalid strategy, use "SHOW STRAT" for a list of strategies
552 No match
152 n matches found - text follows
250 ok (optional timing information here)
.DE
Response code 152 requires a special parameter as part of its text.
Parameter 1 must be the number of matches retrieved.
.HN 2 "A Note on Virtual Databases"
The ability to search all of the provided databases using a single
command is given using the special "*" and "!" databases.
However, sometimes, a client may want to search over some but not all
of the databases that a particular server provides. One alternative
is for the client to use the SHOW DB command to obtain a list of
databases and descriptions, and then (perhaps with the help of a
human), select a subset of these databases for an interactive search.
Once this selection has been done once, the results can be saved, for
example, in a client configuration file.
Another alternative is for the server to provide "virtual" databases
which merge several of the regular databases into one. For example, a
virtual database may be provided which includes all of the translating
dictionaries, but which does not include regular dictionaries or
thesauri. The special "*" and "!" databases can be considered as
names of virtual databases which provide access to all of the
databases. If a server implements virtual databases, then the special
"*" and "!" databases should probably exclude other virtual databases
(since they merely provide information duplicated in other databases).
If virtual databases are supported, they should be listed as a regular
database with the SHOW DB command (although, since "*" and "!" are
required, they need not be listed).
Virtual databases are an implementation-specific detail which has
absolutely no impact on the DICT protocol. The DICT protocol views
virtual and non-virtual databases the same way.
We mention virtual databases here, however, because they solve a
problem of database selection which could also have been solved by
changes in the protocol. For example, each dictionary could be
assigned attributes, and the protocol could be extended to specify
searches over databases with certain attributes. However, this
needlessly complicates the parsing and analysis that must be performed
by the implementation. Further, unless the classification system is
extremely general, there is a risk that it would restrict the types of
databases that can be used with the DICT protocol (although the
protocol has been designed with human-language databases in mind, it
is applicable to any read-only database application, especially those
with a single semi-unique alphanumeric key and textual data).
.HN 2 "The SHOW Command"
.HN 3 "SHOW DB"
SHOW DB
.br
SHOW DATABASES
.Hn 4 "Description"
Displays the list of currently accessible databases, one per line, in
the form:
.DS
database description
.DE
The textual body of the database list is terminated with a CRLF period CRLF
sequence. All DICT servers MUST implement this command.
Note that some databases may be restricted due to client domain or
lack of user authentication (see the AUTH and SASLAUTH commands in
sections 3.11 and 3.12). Information about these databases is not
available until authentication is performed. Until that time, the
client will interact with the server as if the additional databases
did not exist.
.Hn 4 "Responses"
.DS
110 n databases present - text follows
554 No databases present
.DE
Response code 110 requires a special parameter. Parameter 1 must be
the number of databases available to the user.
.HN 3 "SHOW STRAT"
SHOW STRAT
.br
SHOW STRATEGIES
.Hn 4 "Description"
Displays the list of currently supported search strategies, one per
line, in the form:
.DS
strategy description
.DE
The textual body of the strategy list is terminated with a CRLF period CRLF
sequence. All DICT servers MUST implement this command.
.Hn 4 "Responses"
.DS
111 n strategies available - text follows
555 No strategies available
.DE
Response code 111 requires a special parameter. Parameter 1 must be
the number of strategies available.
.HN 3 "SHOW INFO"
SHOW INFO database
.Hn 4 "Description"
Displays the source, copyright, and licensing information about the
specified database. The information is free-form text and is suitable
for display to the user in the same manner as a definition. The
textual body of the information is terminated with a CRLF period CRLF
sequence. All DICT servers MUST implement this command.
.Hn 4 "Responses"
.DS
550 Invalid database, use "SHOW DB" for list of databases
112 database information follows
.DE
These response codes require no special parameters.
.HN 3 "SHOW SERVER"
SHOW SERVER
.Hn 4 "Description"
Displays local server information written by the local administrator.
This could include information about local databases or strategies, or
administrative information such as who to contact for access to
databases requiring authentication. All DICT servers MUST implement
this command.
.Hn 4 "Responses"
.DS
114 server information follows
.DE
This response code requires no special parameters.
.HN 2 "The CLIENT Command"
CLIENT text
.Hn 3 "Description"
This command allows the client to provide information about itself for
possible logging and statistical purposes. All clients SHOULD send
this command after connecting to the server. All DICT servers MUST
implement this command (note, though, that the server doesn't have to
do anything with the information provided by the client).
.Hn 3 "Responses"
.DS
250 ok (optional timing information here)
.DE
This response code requires no special parameters.
.HN 2 "The STATUS Command"
STATUS
.Hn 3 "Description"
Display some server-specific timing or debugging information. This
information may be useful in debugging or tuning a DICT server. All
DICT servers MUST implement this command (note, though, that the text
part of the response is not specified and may be omitted).
.Hn 3 "Responses"
.DS
210 (optional timing and statistical information here)
.DE
This response code requires no special parameters.
.HN 2 "The HELP Command"
HELP
.Hn 3 "Description"
Provides a short summary of commands that are understood by this
implementation of the DICT server. The help text will be presented as
a textual response, terminated by a single period on a line by itself.
All DICT servers MUST implement this command.
.Hn 3 "Responses"
.DS
113 help text follows
.DE
This response code requires no special parameters.
.HN 2 "The QUIT Command"
QUIT
.Hn 3 "Description"
This command is used by the client to cleanly exit the server. All
DICT servers MUST implement this command.
.Hn 3 "Responses"
.DS
221 Closing Connection
.DE
This response code requires no special parameters.
.HN 2 "The OPTION Command"
.HN 3 "OPTION MIME"
OPTION MIME
.Hn 4 "Description"
Requests that all text responses be prefaced by a MIME header
[RFC-1521] followed by a single blank line (CRLF).
.bp
If a client requests this option, then the client MUST be able to
parse Content-Type and Content-transfer-encoding headers, and MUST be
able to ignore textual responses which have an unsupported content or
encoding. A client MUST support the UTF-8 encoding [RFC2044], which
minimally means that the client MUST recognize UTF-8 multi-octet
encodings and convert these into some symbol that can be printed by
the client.
If a client requests this option, then the server will provide a MIME
header. If the header is empty, the text response will start with a
single blank line (CRLF), in which case a client MUST interpret this
as a default header. The default header for SASL authentication is:
.DS
Content-type: application/octet-stream
Content-transfer-encoding: base64
.DE
The default header for all other textual responses is:
.DS
Content-type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-transfer-encoding: 8bit
.DE
If OPTION MIME is not specified by the client, then the server may
restrict the information content provided to the client. For example,
a definition may be accompanied by an image and an audio clip, but the
server cannot transmit this information unless the client is able to
parse MIME format headers.
Note that, because of the line length restrictions and end-of-response
semantics, the "binary" content-transfer-encoding MUST NOT be used.
In the future, extensions to the protocol may be provided which allow
a client to request binary encodings, but the default SHOULD always be
that the client can look for a "CRLF . CRLF" sequence to locate the
end of the current text response. This allows clients to easily skip
over text responses which have unsupported types or encodings.
In the future, after significant experience with large databases in
various languages has been gained, and after evaluating the need for
specifying character sets and other encodings (e.g., compressed or
BASE64 encoding), standard extensions to this protocol should be
proposed which allow the client to request certain content types or
encodings. Care should be taken that these extensions do not require
a handshake which defeats pipelining. In the mean time, private
extensions should be used to explore the parameter space to determine
how best to implement these extensions.
OPTION MIME is a REQUIRED server capability, all DICT servers MUST
implement this command.
.Hn 4 "Responses"
.DS
250 ok (optional timing information here)
.DE
Note that some older server implementations, completed before this
document was finalized, will return a status code 500 if this command
is not implemented. Clients SHOULD be able to accept this behavior,
making default assumptions. Clients may also examine the capabilities
string in the status code 220 header to determine if a server supports
this capability.
.HN 2 "The AUTH Command"
AUTH username authentication-string
.Hn 3 "Description"
The client can authenticate itself to the server using a username and
password. The authentication-string will be computed as in the APOP
protocol discussed in [RFC1939]. Briefly, the authentication-string
is the MD5 checksum of the concatenation of the msg-id (obtained from
the initial banner) and the "shared secret" that is stored in the
server and client configuration files. Since the user does not have
to type this shared secret when accessing the server, the shared
secret can be an arbitrarily long passphrase. Because of the
computational ease of computing the MD5 checksum, the shared secret
should be significantly longer than a usual password.
Authentication may make more dictionary databases available for the current
session. For example, there may be some publicly distributable databases
available to all users, and other private databases available only to
authenticated users. Or, a server may require authentication from all
users to minimize resource utilization on the server machine.
Authentication is an optional server capability. The AUTH command MAY
be implemented by a DICT server.
.Hn 3 "Responses"
.DS
230 Authentication successful
531 Access denied, use "SHOW INFO" for server information
.DE
These response codes require no special parameters.
.HN 2 "The SASLAUTH Command"
SASLAUTH mechanism initial-response
.br
SASLRESP response
.Hn 3 "Description"
The Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) is currently being
developed [RFCXXXX]. The DICT protocol reserves the SASLAUTH and
SASLRESP commands for this method of authentication. The results of
successful authentication with SALSAUTH will be the same as the
results of successful AUTH authentication: more dictionary databases
may become available for the current session.
The initial-response is an optional parameter for the SASLAUTH
command, encoded using BASE64 encoding [RFC1521]. Some SASL
mechanisms may allow the use of this parameter. If SASL
authentication is supported by a DICT server, then this parameter MUST
also be supported.
A typical SASL authentication will be initiated by the client using
the SASLAUTH command. The server will reply with status code 130,
followed by a challenge. The challenge will be followed by status
code 330, indicating that the client must now send a response to the
server.
Depending on the details of the SASL mechanism currently in use, the
server will either continue the exchange using status code 130, a
challenge, and status code 330; or the server will use status code 230
or 531 to indicate authentication was successful or has failed.
The challenges sent by the server are defined by the mechanisms as
binary tokens of arbitrary length, and should be sent using a standard
DICT textual response, as described in section 2.4.3. If OPTION MIME
is not set, then BASE64 encoding MUST be used. If OPTION MIME is set,
then BASE64 is the default encoding, as specified in section 3.10.1.
The client will send all responses using the SASLRESP command and a
BASE64-encoded parameter. The responses sent by the client are
defined by the mechanisms as binary tokens of arbitrary length.
Remember that DICT command lines may only be 1024 characters in
length, so the response provided by a DICT client is limited.
If the mechanism specified in the SASLAUTH command is not supported,
then status code 532 will be returned.
Authentication is an optional server capability. The SASLAUTH command
MAY be implemented by a DICT server.
.Hn 3 "Responses"
.DS
130 challenge follows
330 send response
230 Authentication successful
531 Access denied, use "SHOW INFO" for server information
532 Access denied, unknown mechanism
.DE
These response codes require no special parameters.
.HN 1 "Command Pipelining"
All DICT servers MUST be able to accept multiple commands in a single
TCP send operation. Using a single TCP send operation for multiple
commands can improved DICT performance significantly, especially in
the face of high latency network links.
The possible implementation problems for a DICT server which would
prevent command pipelining are similar to the problems that prevent
pipelining in an SMTP server. These problems are discussed in detail
in [RFC1854], which should be consulted by all DICT server
implementors.
The main implication is that a DICT server implementation MUST NOT
flush or otherwise lose the contents of the TCP input buffer under any
circumstances whatsoever.
A DICT client may pipeline several commands and must check the
responses to each command individually. If the server has shut down,
it is possible that all of the commands will not be processed. For
example, a simple DICT client may pipeline a CLIENT, DEFINE, and QUIT
command sequence as it is connecting to the server. If the server is
shut down, the initial response code sent by the server may be 420
(temporarily unavailable) instead of 220 (banner). In this case, the
definition cannot be retrieved, and the client should report and error
or retry the command. If the server is working, it may be able to
send back the banner, definition, and termination message in a single
TCP send operation.
.HN 1 "URL Specification"
The DICT URL scheme is used to refer to definitions or word lists
available using the DICT protocol:
.DS I 0
dict://<user>;<auth>@<host>:<port>/d:<word>:<database>:<n>
dict://<user>;<auth>@<host>:<port>/m:<word>:<database>:<strat>:<n>
.DE
The "/d" syntax specifies the DEFINE command (section 3.2),
whereas the "/m" specifies the MATCH command (section 3.3).
Some or all of "<user>;<auth>@", ":<port>", "<database>", "<strat>",
and "<n>" may be omitted.
"<n>" will usually be omitted, but when included, it specifies the nth
definition or match of a word. A method for extracting exactly this
information from the server is not available using the DICT protocol.
However, a client using the URL specification could obtain all of the
definitions or matches, and then select the one that is specified.
If "<user>;<auth>@" is omitted, no authentication is done. If
":<port>" is omitted, the default port (2628) SHOULD be used. If
"<database>" is omitted, "!" SHOULD be used (see section 3.2). If
"<strat>" is omitted, "." SHOULD be used (see section 3.3).
"<user>;<auth>@" specifies the username and the type of authentication
performed. For "<auth>", the string "AUTH" indicates that APOP
authentication using the AUTH command will be performed, whereas the
string "SASLAUTH=<auth_type>" indicates that the SASLAUTH and SASLRESP
commands will be used, with "<auth_type>" indicating the type of SASL
authentication which will be used. If "<auth_type>" is a star
(decimal code 42, "*"), then the client will select some type of
authentication.
Whenever authentication is required, the client SHOULD request
additional information (e.g., a passphrase) from the user. In
contrast to [RFC1738], clear text passwords are not permitted in the
URL.
Trailing colons may be omitted. For example, the following URLs might
specify definitions or matches:
.DS
dict://dict.org/d:shortcake:
dict://dict.org/d:shortcake:*
dict://dict.org/d:shortcake:wordnet:
dict://dict.org/d:shortcake:wordnet:1
dict://dict.org/d:abcdefgh
dict://dict.org/d:sun
dict://dict.org/d:sun::1
dict://dict.org/m:sun
dict://dict.org/m:sun::soundex
dict://dict.org/m:sun:wordnet::1
dict://dict.org/m:sun::soundex:1
dict://dict.org/m:sun:::
.DE
.HN 1 "Extensions"
This protocol was designed so that flat text databases can be
used with a server after a minimum of analysis and formatting. Our
experience is that merely constructing an index for a database may be
sufficient to make it useful with a DICT server. The ability to serve
preformatted text is especially important since freely-available
databases are often distributed as flat text files without any
semantic mark-up information (and often contain "ASCII art" which
precludes the automation of even simple formatting).
However, given a database with sufficient mark-up information, it may
be possible to generate output in a variety of different formats
(e.g., simple HTML or more sophisticated SGML). The specification of
formatting is beyond the scope of this document. The requirements for
negotiation of format (including character set and other encodings) is
complex and should be examined over time as more experience is gained.
We suggest that the use of different formats, as well as other server
features, be explored as extensions to the protocol.
.HN 2 "Experimental Command Syntax"
Single-letter commands are reserved for debugging and testing, SHOULD
NOT be defined in any future DICT protocol specification, and MUST NOT
be used by any client software.
Commands beginning with the letter "X" are reserved for experimental
extensions, and SHOULD NOT be defined in any future DICT protocol
specification. Authors of client software should understand that
these commands are not part of the DICT protocol and may not be
available on all DICT servers.
.HN 2 "Experimental Commands and Pipelining"
Experimental commands should be designed so that a client can pipeline
the experimental commands without knowing if a server supports the
commands (e.g., instead of using feature negotiation). If the server
does not support the commands, then a response code in the 5yz series
(usually 500) will be given, notifying the client that the extension
is not supported. Of course, depending on the complexity of the
extensions added, feature negotiation may be necessary. To help
minimize negotiation time, server-supported features may be announced
in the banner (code 220) using the optional capabilities parameter.
.bp
.HN 1 "Summary of Response Codes"
Below is a summary of response codes. A star (*) in the first column
indicates the response has defined arguments that must be provided.
.DS
* 110 n databases present - text follows
* 111 n strategies available - text follows
112 database information follows
113 help text follows
114 server information follows
130 challenge follows
* 150 n definitions retrieved - definitions follow
* 151 word database name - text follows
* 152 n matches found - text follows
210 (optional timing and statistical information here)
* 220 text msg-id
221 Closing Connection
230 Authentication successful
250 ok (optional timing information here)
330 send response
420 Server temporarily unavailable
421 Server shutting down at operator request
500 Syntax error, command not recognized
501 Syntax error, illegal parameters
502 Command not implemented
503 Command parameter not implemented
530 Access denied
531 Access denied, use "SHOW INFO" for server information
532 Access denied, unknown mechanism
550 Invalid database, use "SHOW DB" for list of databases
551 Invalid strategy, use "SHOW STRAT" for a list of strategies
552 No match
554 No databases present
555 No strategies available
.DE
.HN 1 "Sample Conversations"
Theses are samples of the conversations that might be expected with a
typical DICT server. The notation "C:" indicates commands set by the
client, and "S:" indicates responses sent by the server. Blank lines
are included for clarity and do not indicate actual newlines in the
transaction.
.HN 2 "Sample 1 - HELP, DEFINE, and QUIT commands"
.DS I 0
C: [ client initiates connection ]
S: 220 dict.org dictd (version 0.9) <27831.860032493@dict.org>
.DE
.DS I 0
C: HELP
S: 113 Help text follows
S: DEFINE database word look up word in database
S: MATCH database strategy word match word in database using strategy
S: [ more server-dependent help text ]
S: .
S: 250 Command complete
.DE
.DS I 0
C: DEFINE ! penguin
S: 150 1 definitions found: list follows
S: 151 "penguin" wn "WordNet 1.5" : definition text follows
S: penguin
S: 1. n: short-legged flightless birds of cold southern esp. Antarctic
S: regions having webbed feet and wings modified as flippers
S: .
S: 250 Command complete
.DE
.DS I 0
C: DEFINE * shortcake
S: 150 2 definitions found: list follows
S: 151 "shortcake" wn "WordNet 1.5" : text follows
S: shortcake
S: 1. n: very short biscuit spread with sweetened fruit and usu.
S: whipped cream
S: .
S: 151 "Shortcake" web1913 "Webster's Dictionary (1913)" : text follows
S: Shortcake
S: \\Short"cake`\\, n.
S: An unsweetened breakfast cake shortened with butter or lard,
S: rolled thin, and baked.
S: .
S: 250 Command complete
.DE
.\" " for emacs
.\"
.DS I 0
C: DEFINE abcdefgh
S: 552 No match
.DE
.DS I 0
C: quit
S: 221 Closing connection
.DE
.HN 2 "Sample 2 - SHOW commands, MATCH command"
.DS I 0
C: SHOW DB
S: 110 3 databases present: list follows
S: wn "WordNet 1.5"
S: foldoc "Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing"
S: jargon "Hacker Jargon File"
S: .
S: 250 Command complete
.DE
.DS I 0
C: SHOW STRAT
S: 111 5 strategies present: list follows
S: exact "Match words exactly"
S: prefix "Match word prefixes"
S: substring "Match substrings anywhere in word"
S: regex "Match using regular expressions"
S: reverse "Match words given definition keywords"
S: .
S: 250 Command complete
.DE
.DS I 0
C: MATCH foldoc regex "s.si"
S: 152 7 matches found: list follows
S: foldoc Fast SCSI
S: foldoc SCSI
S: foldoc SCSI-1
S: foldoc SCSI-2
S: foldoc SCSI-3
S: foldoc Ultra-SCSI
S: foldoc Wide SCSI
S: .
S: 250 Command complete
.DE
.DS I 0
C: MATCH wn substring "abcdefgh"
S: 552 No match
.DE
.HN 2 "Sample 3 - Server downtime"
.DS I 0
C: [ client initiates connection ]
S: 420 Server temporarily unavailable
.DE
.DS I 0
C: [ client initiates connection ]
S: 421 Server shutting down at operator request
.DE
.HN 2 "Sample 4 - Authentication"
.DS I 0
C: [ client initiates connection ]
S: 220 dict.org dictd (version 0.9) <27831.860032493@dict.org>
.DE
.DS I 0
C: SHOW DB
S: 110 1 database present: list follows
S: free "Free database"
S: .
S: 250 Command complete
.DE
.DS I 0
C: AUTH joesmith authentication-string
S: 230 Authentication successful
.DE
.DS I 0
C: SHOW DB
S: 110 2 databases present: list follows
S: free "Free database"
S: licensed "Local licensed database"
S: .
S: 250 Command complete
.DE
.HN 1 "Security Considerations"
This RFC raises no security issues.
.HN 1 "References"
.XP
[ASCII] US-ASCII. Coded Character Set - 7-Bit American Standard Code
for Information Interchange. Standard ANSI X3.4-1986, ANSI, 1986.
.XP
[FOLDOC] Howe, Denis, ed. The Free On-Line Dictionary of
Computing, <URL:http://wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk/>
.XP
[ISO10646] ISO/IEC 10646-1:1993. International Standard -- Information
technology -- Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set (UCS) --
Part 1: Architecture and Basic Multilingual Plane. UTF-8 is described
in Annex R, adopted but not yet published. UTF-16 is described in
Annex Q, adopted but not yet published.
.XP
[JARGON] The on-line hacker Jargon File, version 4.0.0, 25 JUL 1996,
<URL:http://www.ccil.org/jargon/>
.XP
[KNUTH73] Knuth, Donald E. "The Art of Computer Programming", Volume
3: Sorting and Searching (Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1973, pages
391 and 392). Knuth notes that the soundex method was originally
described by Margaret K. Odell and Robert C. Russell [US Patents
1261167 (1918) and 1435663 (1922)].
.XP
[PZ85] Pollock, Joseph J. and Zamora, Antonio, "Automatic spelling
correction in scientific and scholarly text," CACM, 27(4): Apr. 1985,
358-368.
.XP
[RFC640] Postel, J., "Revised FTP Reply Codes", RFC-640, June, 1975.
.XP
[RFC821] Postel, J., "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol", RFC-821,
USC/Information Sciences Institute, August, 1982.
.XP
[RFC822] Crocker, D., "Standard for the Format of ARPA Internet Text
Messages", RFC-822, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of
Delaware, August, 1982.
.XP
[RFC977] Kantor, B., Lapsley, P., "Network News Transfer Protocol: A
Proposed Standard for the Stream-Based Transmission of News", RFC-977,
U.C. San Diego, U.C. Berkeley, February, 1986.
.XP
[RFC1521] Borenstein, N., Freed, N., "MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail
Extensions) Part One: Mechanisms for Specifying and Describing the
Format of Internet Message Bodies", RFC-1521, Bellcore, Innosoft,
September 1993.
.XP
[RFC1738] Berners-Lee, T., Masinter, L., and M. McCahill, "Uniform
Resource Locators (URL)", RFC-1738, CERN, Xerox PARC, University of
Minnesota, December 1994.
.XP
[RFC1760] Haller, N., "The S/KEY One-Time Password System", RFC-1760,
Bellcore, February, 1995.
.XP
[RFC1985] Freed, N., and Cargille, A., "SMTP Service Extension for
Command Pipelining", RFC-1854, Innosoft International, Inc., and
Network Working Group, October 1995.
.XP
[RFC1939] Myers, J., Rose, M., "Post Office Protocol - Version 3",
RFC-1939, Carnegie Mellon/Dover Beach Consulting, May, 1996.
.XP
[RFC2044] Yergeau, F., "UTF-8, a transformation format of Unicode and
ISO 10646", RFC-2044, Alis Technologies, October 1996.
.XP
[RFC2068] Fielding, R., Gettys, J., Mogul, J., Frystyk, H.,
Berners-Lee, T., "Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1", RFC-2068,
U.C. Irvine, DEC, MIT/LCS, January, 1997.
.XP
[RFC2078] Linn, J., "Generic Security Service Application Program
Interface, Version 2", RFC-2078, OpenVision Technologies, January,
1997.
.XP
[RFCXXXX] Myers, J., "Simple Authentication and Security Layer
(SASL)", RFC-XXXX, work in progress.
.XP
[WEB1913] Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (G & C. Merriam Co.,
1913, edited by Noah Porter). Online version prepared by MICRA, Inc.,
Plainfield, N.J. and edited by Patrick Cassidy <cassidy@micra.com>.
For further information, see
<URL:ftp://uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/etext/gutenberg/etext96/pgw*>,
and
<URL:http://humanities.uchicago.edu/forms_unrest/webster.form.html>
.XP
[WORDNET] Miller, G.A. (1990), ed. WordNet: An On-Line Lexical
Database. International Journal of Lexicography. Volume 3, Number 4.
<URL:http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/~wn/>
.HN 1 "Acknowledgements"
Thanks to Arnt Gulbrandsen and Nicolai Langfeldt for many helpful
discussions. Thanks to Bennet Yee, Doug Hoffman, Kevin Martin, and
Jay Kominek for extensive testing and feedback on the initial
implementations of the DICT server. Thanks to Zhong Shao for advice
and support.
Thanks to Brian Kanto, Phil Lapsley, and Jon Postel for writing exemplary
RFCs which were consulted during the preparation of this document.
Thanks to Harald T. Alvestrand, whose comments helped improve this document.
.HN 1 "Author's Addresses"
.DS
Rickard E. Faith
EMail: faith@cs.unc.edu (or faith@acm.org)
.DE
.DS
Bret Martin
EMail: bamartin@miranda.org
.sp
.fi
The majority of this work was completed while Bret Martin was a
student at Yale University.
.DE
.RE
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