bug in the whois/wais query?
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Janos Zsako
zsako at banknet.net
Thu Apr 4 10:31:29 CEST 1996
> From owner-db-wg at ripe.net Wed Apr 3 19:00:08 1996 Dear David, > > Janos Zsako writes : > > > > I have noticed a problem with a person called Matyas Matyas. > > I needed him in the RIPE database. I queried the database and got: > > > > whois -h whois.ripe.net "Matyas Matyas" > > person: Dedi Matyas > > address: RADCOM Ltd. > > address: 8 Hanechoshet St. Tel-Aviv 69710, Israel > > phone: +972 3 6472694 > > fax-no: +972 3 6474681 > > e-mail: dedi at radcom.co.il > > nic-hdl: DM55-RIPE > > notify: lir at NetVision.net.il > > mnt-by: NNCC > > changed: steiff at NetVision.net.il 960225 > > source: RIPE > > > > I therefore registered the following person: > > > > person: Matyas Matyas > > address: HotSoft Tirgu Mures - ROMANIA > > address: O.P. 1, C.P. 172 > > address: 4300 Tirgu Mures - Romania > > phone: +40 65 16 65 16 > > fax-no: +40 65 16 62 90 > > e-mail: matyi at hotsoft.vsat.ro > > nic-hdl: MM200-RIPE > > notify: ncc at banknet.net > > changed: zsako at banknet.net 960403 > > source: RIPE > > > > I queried the database in the same way and I got the same result as the first > > time! > > > > Therefore I suspected the person had been registered earlier and I queried > > the database with the WAIS option (through telnet info.ripe.net). > > I looked for the word "Matyas" and I got three results, one of them was the > > object below: > > > > person: Matyas Matyas > > address: HotSoft Tirgu Mures - ROMANIA > > address: O.P. 1, C.P. 172 > > address: 4300 Tirgu Mures - Romania > > phone: +40-65-166516 > > fax-no: +40-65-166290 > > e-mail: matyi at hotsoft.vsat.ro > > nic-hdl: MM184-RIPE > > changed: alina at u1.ici.ro 960326 > > source: RIPE > > > > and two irrelevant person objects, but the person with the NIC-handle > > MM200-RIPE was not there! > > I got a similar result with a different keyword ("matyi" from the e-mail > > address) and again got MM184-RIPE, but not MM200-RIPE. > > > > Is this normal (did I miss something) or is this a bug? > > (I see two different problems which might have the same cause: > > - why does the whois not give me both MM184-RIPE and MM200-RIPE as an answer to > > the 'whois -h whois.ripe.net "Matyas Matyas"'? > > - why does the WAIS not give me the person object MM200-RIPE? > > ). > > > > I could explain however the behaviour of the WAIS query by the fact that it > > does not search the "real" database, but a copy of it, which is updated in > > bigger chunks. Is this the explanation for the second problem? > > Correct, WAIS gets updated only once a day. We can should be able to see > the object tomorrow. > > > I find no explanation for the first problem though... > > I think that we are dealing with a 'feature' and possibly a bug (I need > to investigate this in more detail to be sure). > > The database uses the following algoritm to find an object: > > - break up the search key on space boundaries: > > Matyas Matyas ----> (Matyas, Matyas) Thank you for your detailed answer. I think I have now better delimited the problem, which seems to be a _bug_ also after the explanation you gave. Based on your description of the algorithm I would definitely assume that the result of the query whois -h whois.ripe.net "Matyas Matyas" should be the same as the result of the query whois -h whois.ripe.net Matyas Am I correct? The problem is that they are NOT the same! The correct result is provided only by the second query. :( The first one _excludes_ only the correct answers, instead of _returning_ only those values? This looks like a condition written in a negated form... Best regards, Janos > > - Then it looks for objects that match the keys > > Dedi Matyas (Dedi, Matyas) > > Example: > > Matyas -> 3,5,10 > Dedi -> 5 > > - It returns the objects that are pointed by all the keys (not one of > them) but ignores keys that don't reference anything: > > Thus a query for: > > Matyas Matyas > > will give you back any objects that have a Matyas key (objects 3,5,10) > > and > > Dedi Matyas > > will give you object 5 (not 3 & 10) > > > It looks like the database gives consistent output except for the > following case: > > $ whois -r Matyas Matyas > > person: Dedi Matyas > > because the above described algoritm should give you all objects that have > a key Matyas and should give the same result as the following query: > > $ whois -r Matyas > > person: Dedi Matyas > ... > person: Matyas Matyas > ... > person: Matyas Matyas > ... > > > I made some completely new code for this part of the RIPE database in my > own time but it is far from production quality but the problem is on the > list (This code also solves the 'too many hits' problem for people with > very common first and last names). > > Note that it is recommended to do your first search with a not too refined > key: You cannot always be sure that people that registered a person had > the same idea of the first name of a person (only initials, full name). > > Thanks for noticing and informing me of this problem. It will certainly > be looked into, > > Kind regards, > > David Kessens > RIPE Database maintainer > ---- >
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