Re: bug in the whois/wais query? From owner-db-wg@localhost Wed Apr 3 19:00:08 1996

[zsako@localhost (Janos Zsako)]

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@localhost
>   > nic-hdl:     DM55-RIPE
>   > notify:      lir@localhost
>   > mnt-by:      NNCC
>   > changed:     steiff@localhost 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@localhost
>   > nic-hdl:     MM200-RIPE
>   > notify:      ncc@localhost
>   > changed:     zsako@localhost 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@localhost
>   > nic-hdl:     MM184-RIPE
>   > changed:     alina@localhost  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
>   ----
>