A CCSO name-server or Ph protocol was an early form of database search on the Internet.
The initial request from the client is a text base keyword optionally followed by one or more parameters as defined in the RFC 2378.
Each command defined by the RFC 2378 memo consists of a keyword followed as needed by one or more parameters or key words.
Returns information such as server version mail domain and whom to contact about password issues and authentication methods.
Logging in allows a user to change their own entry and view certain fields in it flag for restricted access.
In the early 1990s, Indiana University software developer Larry Hughes implemented a version of Qi (called "Phd") that was written in Perl and backed by a relational database.
That code was distributed under an open-source license for several years prior to the university's transition to LDAP.