Ian & Stuart's Australian Mac: Not for Sale/Another.not.for.sale (Australia).iso/fade into you/being there/Rants/KnowBot

Text File | 1993-10-31 | 27KB | 805 lines

Network Working Group                                         R. Droms
Internet Draft                                                Bucknell
                                                        December, 1989


                     The Knowbot Information Service



1  Status of this Memo

This Internet Draft specifies the architecture and protocol of the Knowbot
Information Service (KIS), a directory or ``white pages'' service that
provides a uniform interface to existing Internet directory services.  This
service and protocol are experimental; comments and discussion should be
directed to the [e-mail] mailing list.

This draft document will be submitted to the RFC editor as an Information
document on February 28, 1990.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Please send comments to [e-mail].


2  Abstract

Within the metanetwork of networks that exchange electronic mail, there are
many directory services that provide partial coverage of network users; that
is, directories with information about some subset of a particular network's
user population.  Searching the collection of available directories is
time-consuming and requires knowledge of each directory's user interface.
Although X.500 is currently under study as a basis for an Internet-wide
directory service, it is unlikely that a universal user registry will be in
place in the near future.  The Knowbot Information Service provides a
uniform interface to heterogeneous directory services that simplifies the
task of locating users in the combined network.


3  Introduction

The loose confederation of networks that exchange electronic mail, including
the Internet, CSNET, BITNET and UUCP(1) provides services to hundreds of
thousands of users.  Locating a specific user in this collection of networks
is a difficult problem; there is no single directory service in which all
users are represented.  Searching for a user requires that queries be
directed to a collection of more-or-less well-known directory services,
____________________________
 (1)Quarterman and Hoskins have written a summary of contemporary
networks[8] that includes descriptions of the Internet, CSNET, BITNET, UUCP
and many other public and commercial networks.





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including [e-mail] [4], [e-mail] [1], Profile [5] and
X.500 [12].  Of course, each of these services accepts different styles of
queries and returns its responses in a unique format.

While the White Pages Pilot Project[10] is exploring the use of X.500 as the
basis for an Internet-wide directory service, we believe that the current
diversity of directory services will persist for some time.  There are also
users of other networks not a part of the Internet that are unlikely to
become part of any Internet-based directory service.  The likelihood that
users will want to query multiple directory services through a single,
uniform interface motivates the development of our new tool.

We have developed the Knowbot Information Service (KIS) that uses Knowbots
to automate the process of searching multiple directory services.  KIS is a
directory service user interface that integrates heterogeneous directory
services into a single, uniform service.  In response to user input, KIS
forwards queries to multiple directory services.  The responses are
collected and formatted by KIS into a standard format for presentation to
the user.  The design of KIS is flexible and extensible, allowing convenient
integration of new directories into KIS as they become available.


4  Knowbots and KIS

The Knowbot model of distributed computation supposes a network of
computational resources, into which Knowbots are launched by network users.
These Knowbots then access network resources on behalf of the user, perhaps
bringing remote data back for local processing or migrating to a remote
location for processing of remote data.  Knowbots visit multiple network
sites and access multiple network services during their lifetime.  Each
Knowbot acts as an independent agent acting on behalf of a user and
reporting results back to the user as computations are completed.

Knowbots are part of the ``Digital Library Project'' [3], which will make a
variety of library services available on the National Research Network.
Knowbots are essential to the Digital Library, in that the project is of
large enough scale that automated assistants -- Knowbots -- will be required
to make effective use of the diverse and distributed services and resources
to be provided by the Digital Library.

The Knowbot Information System is a distributed service that represents an
early prototype of the Knowbot paradigm.  KIS uses two Knowbots:  one that
performs user interface activities and a second that provides a distributed
user directory ``meta-service''.


5  Architecture

The underlying model used in KIS is the client-server model, where the KIS
services are provided through a reserved TCP/IP protocol port [6, 9] by a
server Knowbot.  The server fields incoming queries and hands those queries

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off to sub-processes, which, in turn, send queries to remote directory
services.  The responses are formatted by the sub-processes and returned
through the TCP/IP connection.

Users gain access to the KIS services through client Knowbots that
communicate with the server through TCP/IP. In the simplest case, the user
can use telnet [7] to connect directly to the KIS server.  There are client
Knowbots that accept both interactive and electronic mail KIS queries.  The
client/server Knowbot architecture allows the incorporation of new
interaction mechanisms through the development of simple front end Knowbots.
In addition, the use of TCP/IP as a transport protocol allows access to KIS
services from remote sites, which need only implement the interface


5.1  Client

A user gains access to KIS services through a local user interface Knowbot,
which is run as a user program.  The user Knowbot establishes a TCP
connection with a server Knowbot, through TCP port 186.  After the
connection has been established, the user Knowbot accepts user input,
forwards commands to the server Knowbot and relays responses back to the
user.

Currently, there is only one implementation of the user interface Knowbot,
which uses a simple ``dumb terminal'' display model.  An X Window
System [11] interface is under consideration.


5.2  Server

After the server Knowbot accepts a TCP connection on port 186, it starts a
sub-process as hands the connection to the sub-process for further
processing.  The sub-process accepts commands from the client Knowbot, sends
requests to other directory services and returns the responses back to the
client Knowbot.

While the KIS server is currently available on host nri.reston.va.us, it
could easily be made available at other Internet sites.  Because the
directory services are available to all Internet hosts (with the exception
of the MCImail directory service), any KIS server can provide identical
function independent of any other server.


5.3  Converting to KIS Format

KIS uses AWK [2] to convert queries and responses from KIS format to the
formats used by other directory services.  Each directory service has two
AWK conversion programs, one for queries and one for responses, in a library
of KIS conversion programs.

KIS passes the following arguments to each query conversion program:

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     BEGIN    {
        host = "nic.ddn.mil"
        }
     END    {
        cmd = "/usr/ucb/whois -h " host
        if (ident != "")
         cmd = cmd " !"ident
        else {
         if ((i = index(last\_name, "*")) != 0)
           last_name = substr(last_name, 1, i-1) "..."
         cmd = cmd " ." last_name
         if (first_name != "") cmd = cmd "," first_name
         }
        print cmd
        }

           Figure 1:  AWK program for [e-mail] Service.

     Korb, John T. (JTK1)           [e-mail]
        Purdue University
        Department of Computer Science
        West Lafayette, IN 47907
        [phone]

               Figure 2:  Response from [e-mail].

first_name :The first name of the query subject.
last_name :The last name of the query subject.
ident : The service-specific identifier.
org : The organization name qualifier.
host : The host from which the directory service is to be requested.

For example, the AWK program in figure 1 generates a request for the
[e-mail] service.  Given input last_name=korb, first_name=john,
host=ddn.nic.mil, the server Knowbot will issue the request:

     /usr/ucb/whois -h nic.ddn.mil .korb,john

Similarly, the server Knowbot uses an AWK program to reformat responses from
remote directory services into a standard KIS format.  Appendix A shows the
AWK program for responses from [e-mail].  Figure 2 shows the input
to the program in appendix A and figure 3 shows the resulting response in
KIS format.

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     Name:         John T. Korb
     Phone:        [phone]
     E-Mail:       [e-mail]
     Source:       [e-mail]
     Ident:        JTK1
     Last updated: (unknown)

         Figure 3:  Response from [e-mail] in KIS format.

5.4  Client--Server Protocol

The client and server Knowbots communicate through a simple ASCII protocol.
Each message in the protocol consists of a string of ASCII characters
terminated by an EOT character.  Messages from the client to the server
consist of a single command word, followed by command parameters, as in the
following example:

         "service profile@nri\n"

Messages from the server to the client may include multiple newline
characters, as in the following example:

         "Name:         Ralph E. Droms\n
         E-Mail:       [e-mail]\n
         Source:       profile@nri\n
         Last Updated: (unknown)\n
         Name:         Ralph Droms\n
         Organization: NRI\n
         Address:      1895 Preston White Drive, Suite 100\n
         City:         Reston\n
         State:        VA\n
         Country:      US\n
         Zip:         22091\n
         Phone:        [phone]\n
         E-Mail:       [e-mail]\n
         Source:       profile@nri\n
         Last Updated: July 12 1989\n\004"

The protocol is strictly synchronous -- essentially an RPC mechanism.  Each
message from the client to the server is followed by exactly one response
from the server.  If the command word in the client message is thought of as
the name of a remote procedure, the additional words on in the client
message can be thought of as parameters, and the reply from the server as a
returned value, completing the RPC analogy.



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 % kis droms                           Searches the default list of directory
                                       services for user droms

 % kis -s [e-mail] dromsSearches the Profile service at
                                       nri.reston.va.us for user droms

 % kis 'alison brown'                  Searches the default list of directory
                                       services for a user with first name
                                       alison and last name brown

 % kis
 > service [e-mail]    Searches the Profile service at
                                       nri.reston.va.us for user droms
                                       (using interactive interface

 % kis                                 Is identical to the previous example
 > service [e-mail]
 > query droms

 % kis                                 Searches for user alison brown
 > service [e-mail]
 > alison brown
              Figure 4:  Examples of the KIS user interface.

5.5  Implementation

One of the primary goals of this project was simplicity.  The implementation
itself is constructed, as much as possible, from existing Unix(2) tools and
application programs.  Unix applications such as whois, profile and finger
provide access to the remote directory services.  The AWK programming
language performs the format translations between the remote directory
services and KIS. The bulk of the server code (400 lines of C) and the
client code (250 lines of C) deal with command line argument parsing and
TCP-based inter-process communication.

The key to the flexibility and extensibility of KIS is the implementation of
the query and response translation functions.  KIS uses a series of tables
(really, AWK programs) to specify the set of remote directory services and
to describe the translations required for the queries and responses
exchanged with each remote directory service.  New remote directory services
can be incorporated into KIS by simply adding the name of the service to the
set known to KIS, and defining a new translation description.  For example,
KIS has gained access to the X.500-based White Pages Pilot project by simply
adding configuration information describing the X.500 DUA interface to the
KIS configuration database.  Similarly, KIS provides access to MCImail
____________________________
 (2)Unix is a registered trademark of AT&T.

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directory services through an interface application program described in the
KIS configuration database.


6  Using KIS

There are several interfaces available through the KIS client Knowbot.  The
first is modeled after the whois service, in that it accepts switches on the
command line and returns a single response when the request is complete.
The second interface, described in more detail in section 6.1, allows the
user to formulate queries and receive response interactively.  Other
interfaces, using electronic mail and telnet, are provided through simple
extensions of the interactive and command line interfaces.


6.1  Interactive User Interface

The model used by KIS is one in which the user forms a search context that
is used by KIS to query the remote directory services and search the
responses.  Any entries that satisfy the search context are returned to the
user.  When used interactively, the user can iteratively refine the search
context and query KIS to successively narrow the search to the desired
entries.  In non-interactive mode, the user forms a single search context
(e.g., through the body of an electronic mail message directed to the KIS
server) from which KIS then performs a single search.

The user commands in interactive mode include:

service directory-service :Add directory service to the list of directory
     services to be searched by KIS. If directory service is not specified,
     or if the service command is not used, KIS uses a default list of
     directory services.
services :List all services available through kis.
org organization :Use organization as a qualifier to constrain the KIS
     search.
ident identifier :Search for the service specific identifier, rather than a
     user name.
query user-name :Issue a query for user-name.  Equivalent to entering
     user-name with no command.
print : Print the current list of services, organization, user name and
     identifier.
help, ?  :Print a short command summary.
man : Print a longer command description.
quit : Terminate the KIS session.

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Figure 4 gives a series of examples of the command line and interactive KIS
interfaces.


6.2  Current Services

KIS has translation programs for the following services:

     whois (as provided by nic.ddn.mil)
     whois (as provided by sh.cs.net and identified by KIS as csnet
     profile
     mcimail
     quipu
     finger

KIS uses the following list of services at the specified sites by default:


     [e-mail]
     [e-mail]
     [e-mail]
     [e-mail]
     [e-mail]
     [e-mail]


6.3  Mail Interface

Host nri.reston.va.us maintains a mail interface to KIS. Mail addressed to
user kis is processed by a KIS client Knowbot as interactive input.  The
response from the KIS client is returned to the mail sender in a return mail
message.  Multiple commands and queries can be packaged into one mail
request, and all responses will be returned in a single mail reply.


6.4  Telnet Interface

Host nri.reston.va.us also provides a telnet-compatible interface to a KIS
client Knowbot through port 185.  Telnet connections to nri.reston.va.us,
port 185 are fielded by the Unix inetd program, and handed off to a KIS
client Knowbot.


7  Status

KIS is implemented as two C programs, a collection of AWK programs and other
support files on a Sun 4/280 running SunOS 4.0.  The KIS client Knowbot has

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been ported and run on a VAX 11/780 running 4.3BSD Unix.  The code should be
compatible with any version of Unix that supports the Berkeley-style socket
interface.


8  Acknowledgement

This work was undertaken with the support of the Corporation for National
Research Initiatives, Reston, VA.


9  Author's address

The author's current address is:


     Ralph Droms
     Computer Science Department
     Bucknell University
     Lewisburg, PA 17837
     [phone]
     [e-mail]


References

 [1] User Name Server:  Introduction. CSNET Coordination and Information
     Center, October 1988. (Available as NS--1 from [e-mail]).
 [2] Alfred Aho, Brian W. Kernighan, and Peter Weinberger. Awk -- A Pattern
     Scanning and Processing Language. Technical report, Bell Laboratories,
     Murray Hill, NJ, 1974.
 [3] Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn. The Digital Library Project. Technical
     report, Corporation for National Research Initiatives, 1895 Preston
     White Drive, Reston VA, 1988.
 [4] K. Harrenstien, M. Stahl, and E. Feinler. NICNAME/WHOIS. RFC 954, NIC,
     October 1988.
 [5] Larry L. Peterson. The Profile Naming Service. ACM Transactions on
     Computer Systems, 6(4):341--364, November 1988.
 [6] J. Postel. Transmission Control Protocol. RFC 793, NIC, September
     1981.
 [7] J. Postel and J. Reynolds. TELNET Protocol Specification. RFC 854,
     NIC, May 1983.
 [8] John S. Quarterman and Josiah C. Hoskins. Notable Computer Networks.
     Communications of the ACM, 29(10), October 1986.

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 [9] S. Romano, M. Stahl, and M. Recker. Internet Numbers. RFC 1062, NIC,
     August 1988.
[10] Marshall T. Rose and Martin L. Schoffstall. An Introduction to a
     NYSERNet White Pages Pilot Project. Technical report, NYSERNet, Inc.,
     Troy, NY, 1989.
[11] Robert W. Scheifler and Jim Gettys. The X Window System. Digital
     Press, 1988.
[12] CCITT Recommendation X.500. The Directory -- Overview of Concepts,
     Models and Services. International Telegraph and Telephone
     Consultative Committee, December 1988.



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A  AWK Program to Translate Response from [e-mail] KIS Format

BEGIN {
    collecting_address = 0;
    last_rec = "";
    next_to_last_rec = "";
    found = 0;
    read_multiple = 0;
  }

/No match/ {
# name not found
    if (first_name != "")
        print "No matches found for " first_name " " last_name "
                   from service " service "@" host
    else
        print "No matches found for " last_name "
                   from service " service "@" host
    found = 0;
    exit;
  }

/timed out/ {
# network down
    print "Unable to connect to " service "@" host
    found = 0;
    exit;
  }

/refused/ {
# server down
    print "Unable to connect to " service "@" host
    found = 0;
    exit;
  }

/host unknown/ {
# network down?
    print "Unable to connect to " service "@" host
    found = 0;
    exit;
  }

/unreachable/ {
    print "Unable to connect to " service "@" host
    found = 0;
    exit;
  }

NR == 1 {
    found = 1

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    last_name  = substr($1, 1, length($1)-1);
    given_name = $2;
    i = 3;
    other_name = " "
    while (substr($i, 1, 1) != "(") {
      other_name = other_name $3 " ";
      i++;
    }
    ident = substr($i, 2, length($i) - 2);
    i++;
    e_mail_address = $i;
# Possible phone number all on one line
    organization_phone = "";
    for (i++; i <= NF; i++) {
      if (organization_phone != "")
        organization_phone = organization_phone " ";
      organization_phone = organization_phone $i;
    }
  }

NR == 2 {
# Is this the start of multiple responses?
    if (substr($0, 1, 1) != " " && substr($0, 1, 1) != "        ") {
      print "Name:         " given_name other_name last_name;
      if (organization_phone != "")
        print "Phone:        " organization_phone;
      if (e_mail_address != "")
        print "E-Mail:       " e_mail_address;
      print "Source:       [e-mail]";
      if (ident != "")
        print "Ident:        " ident;
      print "Last updated: (unknown)";
      last_name  = substr($1, 1, length($1)-1);
      given_name = $2;
      i = 3;
      other_name = " "
      while (substr($i, 1, 1) != "(") {
        other_name = other_name $3 " ";
        i++;
      }
      ident = substr($i, 2, length($i) - 2);
      i++;
      e_mail_address = $i;
# Possible phone number all on one line
      organization_phone = "";
      for (i++; i <= NF; i++) {
        if (organization_phone != "")
         organization_phone = organization_phone " ";
        organization_phone = organization_phone $i;
        }
      read_multiple = 1;

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      next;
    } else if (substr($0, 1, 1) == "    ") {
      organization_phone = "";
      for (i = 1; i <= NF; i++) {
        if (organization_phone != "")
         organization_phone = organization_phone " ";
        organization_phone = organization_phone $i;
      }
      read_multiple = 1;
      next;
    } else {
      organization_name = substr($0, 4, length($0) - 3);
      collecting_address = 1;
      next;
    }
  }

read_multiple == 1 {
    if (substr($0, 1, 1) != " " && substr($0, 1, 1) != "        ") {
      print "Name:         " given_name other_name last_name;
      if (organization_phone != "")
        print "Phone:        " organization_phone;
      if (e_mail_address != "")
        print "E-Mail:       " e_mail_address;
      print "Source:       [e-mail]";
      if (ident != "")
        print "Ident:        " ident;
      print "Last updated: (unknown)";
      if (substr($0, 1, 1) == "\r")
        exit;
      last_name  = substr($1, 1, length($1)-1);
      given_name = $2;
      i = 3;
      other_name = " "
      while (substr($i, 1, 1) != "(") {
        other_name = other_name $3 " ";
        i++;
      }
      ident = substr($i, 2, length($i) - 2);
      i++;
      e_mail_address = $i;
# Possible phone number all on one line
      organization_phone = "";
      for (i++; i <= NF; i++) {
        if (organization_phone != "")
         organization_phone = organization_phone " ";
        organization_phone = organization_phone $i;
        }
      read_multiple = 1;
    } else if (substr($0, 1, 1) == "    ") {
      organization_phone = "";

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      for (i = 1; i <= NF; i++) {
        if (organization_phone != "")
         organization_phone = organization_phone " ";
        organization_phone = organization_phone $i;
      }
      read_multiple = 1;
    }
  }

collecting_address == 1 {
    if (next_to_last_rec != "") {
      if (organization_address != "")
        organization_address = organization_address ", ";
      organization_address = organization_address next_to_last_rec;
    }
    if (substr($1, 1, 1) == "(") {
      split(last_rec, last_rec_fields, " ");
      organization_city = "";
      i = 1;
      while (index(last_rec_fields[i], ",") == 0) {
        organization_city = organization_city last_rec_fields[i] " ";
        i++;
      }
      organization_city = \
        organization_city \
        substr(last_rec_fields[i], 1, length(last_rec_fields[i]) - 1);
      i++;
      organization_state = last_rec_fields[i];
      i++;
      organization_zip_code = last_rec_fields[i];
# Some responses have "\r\n" line terminators...
      if (index($0, "\r") != 0)
        organization_phone = substr($0, 4, length($0) - 4);
      else
        organization_phone = substr($0, 4, length($0) - 3);

      collecting_address = 0;
    } else {
      next_to_last_rec = last_rec;
# Some responses have "\r\n" line terminators...
      if (index($0, "\r") != 0)
        last_rec = substr($0, 4, length($0) - 4);
      else
        last_rec = substr($0, 4, length($0) - 3);
    }
  }

END    {
    if (found == 1 && read_multiple == 0) {
      print "Name:         " given_name other_name last_name;
      if (organization_name != "")

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        print "Organization: " organization_name;
      if (organization_address != "")
        print "Address:      " organization_address;
      if (organization_city != "")
        print "City:         " organization_city;
      if (organization_state != "") {
        print "State:        " organization_state;
        print "Country:      US";
      }
      if (organization_zip_code != "")
        print "Zip:         " organization_zip_code;
      if (organization_phone != "")
        print "Phone:        " organization_phone;
      if (e_mail_address != "")
        print "E-Mail:       " e_mail_address;
      print "Source:       [e-mail]";
      if (ident != "")
        print "Ident:        " ident;
      print "Last Updated: (unknown)";
    }
  }



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