Recent RIPE Database Update Changes October 2004

In preparation of a new release of the Whois software we have fixed several bugs and implemented some of the simple features asked for over the last few months for the update program, dbupdate. A brief description follows of the features implemented.

1) Change to the overall result of a mail update message.

During the re-structuring of the dbupdate program we changed the way we report the overall result of a mail update. This caused some confusion and we have now returned to the behavior of the previous version of dbupdate. To make this clear here are the outcomes we now report:

A blank update message - FAILED:
ANY object update failed - FAILED:
Otherwise - SUCCESS:

2) Handling of keywords in the Subject: line of a mail update.

Currently there are only two keywords used by dbupdate. These are NEW and HELP (HOWTO is also valid but taken to mean the same as HELP). NEW forces all objects found in the mail message to be treated as a creation request. Any object that already exists will result in an error. HELP returns help text.

To use a keyword it has to be put in the Subject: line of the mail message, with NO other words present. If any other word is found for example

Subject: NEW objects

then none of the words are actioned as keywords and they are all reported in the acknowledgment reply as invalid keywords. In this context it is impossible for dbupdate to know if a word is a keyword. As many users often include their own reference in the Subject: line it means it is impossible for them to also use a keyword and they always get their references reported in the Warning messages of the acknowledgment.

To overcome these problems we have introduced a KEYWORDS: tag. When this tag is found in a Subject: line all text up to and including this KEYWORDS: tag is ignored by dbupdate. Only what follows this tag is checked for valid keywords. The same rules apply as before. If a word is found after the KEYWORDS: tag that is not a valid keyword none of the words are actioned as keywords. In this case all the words following the KEYWORDS: tag are reported as invalid keywords in the acknowledgment reply.

Adding the KEYWORDS: tag at the end of a Subject: line means that valid keywords can still be used with a users reference in the same line. By adding the KEYWORDS: tag at the end of the Subject: line with no keywords following it means that the users reference will not be reported as invalid keywords. The default behavior is unaltered. A keyword can still be placed on a line with no other words and actioned.

We could easily make another change, if users would prefer it, so that keywords will ONLY be accepted if they follow the KEYWORDS: tag. This would make the default behavior ignore the whole Subject: line and not report any of it as errors if the KEYWORDS: tag is not found. This default behavior may be more appropriate to the way the Subject: line is currently used in most cases. Please let us know if this is preferred.

All keywords and the KEYWORDS: tag are case insensitive.

3) Difference in notification messages

We have been asked to highlight changes in the notification message between the old and new objects for a modification operation. This is particularly useful when "import:" and "export:" attributes are changed in large aut-num objects.

This has now been implemented as a selectable option. To request it, the user includes the keyword DIFF. When this DIFF keyword is used, each object in the notification message that is a modify operation will include a difference before the standard output of the old and new versions of the objects. So the output will have the difference listing followed by the old and new objects.

For example, a new subject line may look like this:

Subject: changes to aut-num: as1234 KEYWORDS: DIFF

The difference is the standard unix diff, but with one slight change. In our acknowledgment and notification messages we have used three dashes --- followed by a new line to signify the start of a section relating to an object. This is to make it easy to parse the output and find the start of each object in the message. Unfortunately diff also uses --- to separate lines that have changed. So we have had to replace --- with === in the diff output.

If the DIFF keyword is not used the output remains unchanged. Using a simple person object as the example the new output is as follows:

---
OBJECT BELOW MODIFIED:

Differences in [person] TP10-DB-TEST

7c7,8
< notify: case040-1@localhost
===
> changed: dbtest@localhost 20040101
> notify: case040-2@localhost


person: Test Person
address: Singel 258
address: Amsterdam
phone: +31 20 535 4444
nic-hdl: TP10-DB-TEST
changed: dbtest@localhost 20020101
notify: case040-1@localhost
source: DB-TEST


REPLACED BY:

person: Test Person
address: Singel 258
address: Amsterdam
phone: +31 20 535 4444
nic-hdl: TP10-DB-TEST
changed: dbtest@localhost 20020101
changed: dbtest@localhost 20040101
notify: case040-2@localhost
source: DB-TEST

4) Include person/role name in creation results.

The last additional feature is to include the name of a person or role object in the acknowledgement output after a successful creation. Previously only the new nic-hdl was listed. For example, if two person objects are created using AUTO- nic-hdls for Denis Walker and David Wilkinson the reply would only say DW23-RIPE and DW24-RIPE have been created. The user would then have to do a whois lookup to determine which was which. The reply now states:

---
Create SUCCEEDED: [person] DW23-DB-TEST Denis Walker


---
Create SUCCEEDED: [person] DW24-DB-TEST David Wilkinson