whois syntax

Fri Oct 19 13:45:54 UTC 2001

On Fri, Oct 19, 2001 at 02:56:34AM -0400, Robert Boyle wrote:
> There is no standard specified in the RFC for output, just for query 
> language.

Is RFC954 a standard in any real sense? Seems to me that the RFC2026
designation for that document would be "Historic", although RFC954 is
old enough that it is not labelled with a maturity level.

The only consistent similarities I can find between all the deployed
production *IR/IRR/registry/registrar whois servers is (a) that they
all let you look stuff up, and (b) they all listen on 43/tcp.

Joe