questions

Hi.  We seem to be having some problems figuring out exactly how the
guarded stuff works.  Let me begin by asking a specific question.

I want to add the following AS for the first time.

aut-num:   AS1126
descr:     SARA Amsterdam AS
guardian:  ala at fox.merit.edu
admin-c:   Dale Johnson
tech-c:    Dale Johnson
changed:   ala at merit.edu 940217
source:    RRPILOT

I put this object instance definition into a file called "as_stuff" and 
do a "dbupdate -v as_stuff."

Everything goes great and the info ends up in our rrpilot.db database file.
Now, I want to change the "tech-c" attribute so I edit my "as_stuff" file
so that it reads as follows.

aut-num:   AS1126
descr:     SARA Amsterdam AS
guardian:  ala at fox.merit.edu
admin-c:   Dale Johnson
tech-c:    Andy Adams
changed:   ala at merit.edu 940217
source:    RRPILOT
 

Now, when I run "dbupdate -v as_stuff" I get the folllowing errored output.

   fox.merit.edu: dbupdate -v as_stuff
   Update FAILED: [aut-num] AS1126
   
   aut-num:   AS1126
   descr:     SARA Amsterdam AS
   guardian:  ala at fox.merit.edu
   admin-c:   Dale Johnson
   tech-c:    Andy Adams
   changed:   ala at merit.edu 940217
   source:    RRPILOT
   *ERROR*:   guarded objects cannot be updated via automatic procedure
   
   
   Objects that just generated a WARNING have been updated as shown.
   Objects that generated an *ERROR* have NOT been updated as requested.
   
   Sincerely Yours, Merit RR-Pilot Database Maintenance Department
   
What am I doing wrong?  How are AS objects modified after they are entered
the first time.  Also, what is the definition of a "guarded object." Is
it any object type referenced by a guarded attribute?

So,  my understanding of guarded attributes is as follows.

Say I have the following network and AS object instances already in my database.

inetnum:   35.0.0.0
netname:   MERIT
descr:     Merit Network, Inc.
country:   US
admin-c:   Dale Johnson
tech-c:    Andy Adams
connect:   NSF
changed:   ala at merit.edu 940217
source:    RRPILOT

aut-num:   AS237
descr:     NSFNETTEST14-AS
guardian:  ala at fox.merit.edu
admin-c:   Dale Johnson
tech-c:    Andy Adams
changed:   ala at merit.edu 940217
source:    RRPILOT

As the owner of net 35 I would like to specify that my AS is 237.  However,
the aut-sys attribute in the Net object is guarded.  My understanding is that
is that there must be an account on the database machine (in this case 
fox.merit.edu) called "AS237".  In the home directory of of AS237 there must
exist a file called "AS237" which contains in it somewhere the line

35.0.0.0


About here in the process I begin to get confused.  How do I, the owner
of net 35, get my aut-sys attribute updated?  In ripe-108 it states on page 3 

"These lists (also called 'guarded files') will be maintained and be served as 
the 'only' source of membership information used in the database."

Does this imply that a 'guarded file' contains __only__ a list of network
numbers?  I suspect not because of text that appears later but it's not entirely
clear what these 'guarded files' are allowed to contain and what the legal
syntax is.  Later on ripe-108 says on page 4

"For each of the guarded files found on 'guardian.ripe.net' the database
software will load any guarded attribute value(s) for the network object(s)
listed in the guarded file.  This will take place at the same time as the
database is garbage collected."

So only the "guardian" of the AS 237 is allowed to make the aut-sys change
to the net 35 object.  That make sense. But the 2 questions are

   (1) How does the guardian of AS 237 specify that this should happen?
       Some lines in a files in the ~AS237/AS237 files perhaps?
   (2) What is the garbage collection program that must be run to effect the
       changes in rrpilot.db?  Is it "cleandb"?


Finally, ripe-108 mentions a guardian syntax checker called "checkguard."
Is this available?

Thanks a lot for any info!

-Andy




-------- Logged at  Fri Feb 18 10:29:17 MET 1994  ---------