<group here>						       S. Herbert
Request for Comments: xxx                         University of Sheffield
Category: Informational                                        April 1999

		       NQS Network Protocol v1 (NQSNP1)

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
   memo is unlimited.
   
   THIS IS A DRAFT COPY OF THIS MEMO!!
   
Abstract

   This memo provides a definition of the NQS Network Protocol v1
   (NQSNP1).

   NQSNP1 is a application-layer network protocol designed to allow
   NASA's COSMIC NQS batch processing system to service clusters of
   computers connected by a network.
   
   Many products, both commercial and freely-available, have been
   derived from the original COSMIC NQS source base, making NQS the
   ``de-facto'' batch processing standard for UNIX.
   
   NQSNP1 has been in use since 1985.
   
Table of Contents

   1         Introduction ............................................. X
   2         What is NQSNP1? .......................................... X
   X         Author's Address ......................................... X

1.  Introduction

    This memo does not document a new network protocol.  NQSNP1 is an old
    application layer protocol.  It predates the publication (but
    probably not the development) of well-known protocols such as NNTP,
    NTP, and BOOTP, and all the protocols since.

    But despite its age, and previously undocumented form, NQSNP1 has
    been implemented by several commercial products, plus two
    freely-available ones, and today is in use on hundreds, if not
    thousands of machines supporting a wide variety of business functions.
    
    There are no plans to further extend or enhance this legacy
    protocol.  At the time of writing, work is underway on NQSNP2 as a
    future replacement.
    
    The author would like to acknowledge the work performed by Cray
    Research, Inc. in reverse engineering NQSNP1 in 1991/2.

2.  What is NQSNP1?

    NQSNP1 is a small network protocol used by NQS systems for:
    
    o  Moving a unit of work from one network host to another
    o  Copying (or moving) files from one network host to another
    o  Querying the status of a NQS system
    
    

X.  Author's Address

   Stuart Herbert
   c/o Chris Cartledge
   CICS
   University of Sheffield
   Western Bank
   Sheffield
   UK
   
   EMail: S.Herbert@sheffield.ac.uk
   WWW  : http://www.gnqs.org/
   
   

