Re: whois output and the "changed" line.

[Bert van Hogeloon <]

FYI.

Ton,
Has the new whois version already been installed? We will need the "-c" from
now!

Regards,
Bert

RIPE Database Administration wrote:
> 
> Dear Colleagues,
> 
> Recently, the output of our whois server was modified;
> the "changed" information is not shown by default.  To
> see it, the new "-c" flag must be used.  This requires
> using the new RIPE whois client.
> 
> The "changed" information was removed from the default
> output of whois after a discussion on the mailing list
> of the RIPE Database Working Group.  This discussion was
> about the funtionality of the "changed" line.  A long-term
> replacement for it (i.e. timestamping of updates) is
> planned.
> 
> However, there is the possibility that the existing
> "changed" lines can be accidently deleted from objects.
> When users want to update an object, they do a whois
> look-up and re-direct the output into a temporary file.
> Then, they edit the file and send it to auto-dbm@localhost.
> Thus, before the output of the whois server was modified,
> the update contained all the previous changed fields.
> 
> Now, unless the user does "whois -c", the "changed"
> attributes are not shown.  But when users want to
> update an object, they re-direct a whois look-up into
> a file, edit it and then send it to the database.  However,
> this time, the "changed" lines are missing and the updated
> version of the object does not contain the previous "changed"
> lines.  This behavior is what would have happened previously
> if you had sent an update to the db and had deliberately
> omitted the changed lines.
> 
> (BTW, if you send an update to the db which only has a new
> "changed" attribute or has all the old "changed" attributes
> replaced with a new one, a NOOP is the result.  The object
> in the db is not changed).
> 
> If all the original "changed" information in an inetnum object
> is not retained, there may be a delay in getting reverse delegation
> for the associated address space.  This is because
> auto-inaddr@localhost checks the date when the assignment was
> originally made and compares it to the assignment window which
> the local registry had on that date.  Thus, the request for reverse
> delegation is processed manually.
> 
> So, to keep all the "changed" attributes, do 'whois -c'
> when you are making a copy of the object before updating it.
> 
> If you have any questions, please contact
> ripe-dbm@localhost.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Ambrose Magee
> ____________________________
> RIPE Database Administration.

-- 
Bert van Hogeloon
e-mail: hogeloon@localhost
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