[db-wg] whois-server friendly client programming

On 2 Mar 2007, at 03:31, Henning Brauer wrote:

>
> right now, I have whois.ripe.net hardwired, of course this is going
> to change before the tool is released.
> I am using
>   "-r -a -T <objtype> <object>"
> for aut-num and as-set, and
>   "-r -a -T <objtype> -i origin <as>"
> for route objects.

you can reduce the information you get back by asking the RIPE whois  
server to give you only the primary keys using the -K flag. In route  
objects that would give you the prefix and the origin only, and not  
the rest of the ancillary info. The option was put there just for  
this use.

>
> Questions:
> can I make life easier for the whois servers by using another set of
> query options?
>
> what is a good default whois server? whois.ripe.net? whois.radb.net?

they tend to mirror each other and be sync'ed. By using the -a option  
above, you are specifying that the server search them all, so it  
doesn't matter.

>
> of course, I run into the penalty delays the whois server imposes
> because of the amount of queries I send. How do I deal with that?

you contact the RIPE NCC and sign an AUP, so the limit is removed.

> do nothing, just accept the delay (that's how it is now)?
>
> is it possible (and feasable!) to mirror the entire IRR? is this
> documented somewhere? I'd happily point to that documentation and
> recommend running a local mirror in the manpage if that is feasable.

Again, yes, possible. Ask the people who run the IRRs (each of the  
ones you want to mirror)

Joao