Re: URGENT: Bug fixes in the RIPE database distribution

[Geert Jan de Groot <]

On Wed, 31 May 1995 13:07:26 -0400  Selina Priestley wrote:
> Has anyone been looking at the problems with the whois server?  This
> has really been a problem for operations here, since a) the problems
> *appear* to be non-deterministic and b) sometimes the exact netmask
> for a route is not known.
> 
> Here's an example of whois oddity.  Why doesn't the RADB 192.5.4.0/23 show
> up in the second query?
> 
> foo-selina:/u/selina: ra 192.5.4
> route:       192.5.4.0/23
> source:      RADB
> 
> route:       192.5.4.0/23
> source:      MCI
> 
> foo-selina:/u/selina: ra 192.5.5
> route:       192.5.5.0/24
> source:      RADB
> 
> route:       192.5.4.0/23
> source:      MCI
> 

The (RIPE-) whois server uses a classful default if no mask is given,,
so these read ra 192.5.4.0/24 and 192.5.5.0/24, respectively.
(backward compatibility).

Second, it sends the first match it finds. To find all less specifics,
use the -L flag: ra -L 192.5.5 and it will list 192.5.4.0/23 (radb),
192.5.5.0/24 (radb), and 192.5.4.0/23 (mci)

There is also a -M flag for more specific cases.

What happens in your second example is beyond me, but ra uses different
software...

Geert Jan