Announcement: RIPE Whois Database version 3.0 beta is out

Dear All,

[ Apologies for duplicate messages ]

This mail is to inform you that version 3.0 beta of the RIPE Whois
Database is out. Read on! You will be affected too.

The RIPE Database is about to change its data format, from RIPE181 to
RPSL (the Routing Policy Specification Language, see RFC2622). This will
affect all object types, including "person", "domain" and "inetnum".

The version 2 of the RIPE Database, the one currently in production on
whois.ripe.net, will in the next months be replaced by version 3. All the
entries in the RIPE Database will be translated into RPSL format, and
that is the format you will get when you will be querying the Database.

Don't be mistaken: for the moment, whois.ripe.net continues running with
version 2 and answering to your queries in the old-fashioned way. But
this will not last forever; in a few months, all will become RPSL. So if
you use the Whois database, we encourage all of you to prepare for this
change as soon as possible.

We strongly suggest you to start to get used to RPSL and version 3.0 . 
In this aim, you can do the following:

        - Query rpsl.ripe.net at port 43. You will find there
          exactly the same objects that are in whois.ripe.net,
          mirrored live and in RPSL format. 

        - If you have any script that runs by querying whois.ripe.net, 
          test it by pointing it to rpsl.ripe.net and make it
          v3.0-compliant.

        - Try our CGI interface to the RPSL server: you can find it at
          http://www.ripe.net/ripencc/pub-services/db/reimp/. 

        - Get to know the new update path: use our "sandbox" database for
          RPSL updates. Send your updates to <auto-rip at ripe.net> and
          query the corresponding database at rpsl.ripe.net, port 4343 .

Remember that in a few months, that's the way the RIPE Database will be
running; so the earlier you start working with it, the less likely you
are to be unpleasantly surprised later.

We are currently preparing additional resources to help ease the
transition; we will announce them as soon as they are available, which
will happen later this month.

Please note that the software is still in a "beta" phase. So we need your
feedback! If you happen to find something that looks like a bug when you
are testing the RPSL database, don't hesitate... 
Send us a bug report at <dbrip at ripe.net> !

If you want to actively participate to the migration effort, you could   
join the "RIP migration Task force" and let yourself be heard. Just write
to <ripe-dbm at ripe.net> and ask to join the Task Force.

For the ones interested in viewing or trying the code, you can download
it at:

        ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/dbase/reimp/whois-rip-3.0beta1.tar.gz

You can also join a discussion list related to version 3.0 beta of the
RIPE Database Software. To subscribe to this list, send a message to
<majordomo at ripe.net> with the line:

subscribe db-beta

in the body of your letter. It is a moderated mailing list so some delays
in subscription are possible.


Regards,

The RIPE Database Group.