[ncc-services-wg] Re: [db-wg] "referral-by:" attribute

Shane Kerr wrote:

> Denis,
> 
> On Tue, 2010-06-08 at 12:37 +0200, Denis Walker wrote:
> 
>>If we make it optional now, although it is still in the RPSL definition,
>>it can be completely ignored. Does anyone have any strong views on this
>>either way?
> 
> 
> I'd actually suggest going further, and getting rid of it completely.

If it doesn't dere a purpose any longer, yes, I agree.

> I think the change could be done so that "referral-by:" attributes would
> be automatically removed when an addition or update was made, so that
> people don't have to change their software when creating maintainer
> objects. In theory this warning could be converted to an error at some
> point in the future, but I don't think it would actually ever be
> necessary.

But I don't beliee in messing around with the users' input and (more or
less silently) throwing away part of their submitted data.

> --
> Shane

IIRC, the "usual" approach was to deal with such a change in phases, like
issue a warning for a while, then refuse an update if it violates the
acceptable schema, and eventually cleaning up old objects that haven't been
touched for a looong time.

I'm sure the DB guys can refresh our memory regarding the specifics.

Wilfried.