Grouping the RIPE Database Output

There are two ways to order the objects in a query response.

One way is for the first part of the response to list the objects that are the direct results of the query. Then, the second part of the response lists all the secondary objects that are directly referenced from the objects in the first part of the response, like organisation and person. If any of these secondary objects are referenced by more than one of the returned objects, it will only be listed once in the response.

$ whois  -i mb aardvark-mnt
mntner:         AARDVARK-MNT
admin-c:        DW6465-RIPE
tech-c:         DW-RIPE
mnt-by:         AARDVARK-MNT
key-cert:       X509-1
admin-c:        DW6465-RIPE
tech-c:         DW6465-RIPE
mnt-by:         AARDVARK-MNT
org:            ORG-EIP1-RIPE
organisation:   ORG-EIP1-RIPE
mnt-ref:        ripe-ncc-hm-mnt
tech-c:         TCP-RIPE
mnt-by:         RIPE-NCC-HM-MNT
abuse-c:        AR13455-RIPE
person:         Denis Walker
nic-hdl:        DW-RIPE
person:         Denis Walker
nic-hdl:        DW6465-RIPE
$ whois  -i mb aardvark-mnt
% Information related to 'AARDVARK-MNT'
mntner:         AARDVARK-MNT
admin-c:        DW6465-RIPE
tech-c:         DW-RIPE
person:         Denis Walker
nic-hdl:        DW-RIPE
person:         Denis Walker
nic-hdl:        DW6465-RIPE
% Information related to 'X509-1'
key-cert:       X509-1
admin-c:        DW6465-RIPE
tech-c:         DW6465-RIPE
mnt-by:         AARDVARK-MNT
org:            ORG-EIP1-RIPE
organisation:   ORG-EIP1-RIPE
mnt-ref:        ripe-ncc-hm-mnt
tech-c:         TCP-RIPE
mnt-by:         RIPE-NCC-HM-MNT
abuse-c:        AR13455-RIPE
person:         Denis Walker
nic-hdl:        DW6465-RIPE

The default response is grouped. If you include the -G or --no-grouping query flag then the output will not be grouped.