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Introduction to the RIPE Database

RIPE Database Documentation Overview

Intended Audience

Conventions Used in the RIPE Database Documentation

What is the RIPE Database

Purpose and Content of the RIPE Database

History of the RIPE Database

Personal Data Database Management and Reponsabilities

RIPE Database Structure

Database Object

Primary and Secondary Objects

List of Primary Objects

List of Secondary Objects

The Attributes in Database Objects

Attribute Names

Attributes in an Object

Attribute Values

Attribute Properties

How to Organise Your Data

REST API Data model

RPSL Object Types

Descriptions of Primary Objects

Descriptions of Secondary Objects

Available Databases

RIPE Database

TEST Database

Release Candidate Database

Experimental Databases

Update Methods

RESTful API

Webupdates

Syncupdates

Email Updates

Updating Objects in the RIPE Database

Format of the Update Message

Accessing the Object Templates

Object Processing

Update Operations

Historical Data

Special Considerations for Object Creation

Garbage Collection

Dry run

Set Objects

Notifications

Acknowledgment Message

Notification Messages

Authorisation

Authorisation Model

Using the Authorisation Methods

Security of Data Using Authorisation

Protection of PERSON and ROLE Objects

Protection of AUT NUM Object Space

Protection of Address Space

Protection of Route Object Space

Protection of Reverse Delegation Objects

Protection of Objects with Hierarchical Names

Protecting Membership of a Set

Referencing an ORGANIZATION Object

Referencing an IRT Object

IRT Object

Force Delete Functionality

Request ENUM delegation

Request DNSSEC delegation

How to Query the RIPE Database

The Structure of a Query

Web Query Form

RESTful API Queries

Command Line Queries

Query Responses

Registration Data Access Protocol

Access to Personal Data

Types of Queries

Queries Using Primary and Lookup Keys

Queries for IP Networks

Queries for Autonomous Systems

More and Less Specific Lookups For Reverse Domains

Inverse Queries

Abuse Contacts

Grouping the RIPE Database Output

Filtering the Query Reponse

IRR Toolset Support

Persistent Connections and Keeping State

Getting All the Members of Set objects

Access Control for Queries

RIPE NCC Global Resource Service

Other Query Flags

Referenced Objects in Query Response

Historical Queries

Related Software and Tools

Geolocation in the RIPE Database

RIPE Database Mirror

Setup RIPE Database Mirror

Near Real Time Mirroring v3

Near Real Time Mirroring v4

Access to NRTM

Tables of Query Types Supported by the RIPE Database

How to Recover Access to a Maintainer Object

Installation and Development

Getting started on macOS

Getting started on Ubuntu Linux

Building whois

Configure MariaDB

Coding standard

Installation instructions

Database Support

Support Overview

Clean up of Unreferenced Data

Database Security

Configuring Reverse DNS

Database Business Rules

Highlighted Values in the RIPE Database

Create First Role Mntner

Removal of personal data

Release Notes

FAQ

Appendices

Appendix A Syntax of Object Attributes

Appendix B Copyright Statement

Appendix C RIPE Database Query Server Response Codes and Messages

Appendix-D--Route-Object-Creation-Flowchart

Appendix-E--Domain-Object-Creation-Flowchart

Appendix F Special Considerations for Object Types

Appendix G Object Types with Personal Data

Appendix H PGP Authentication Method

Appendix I Client Certificate Authentication

Appendix J Ripe Test Database

Appendix K API Keys

Glossary

Legal Information

RIPE Database Acceptable Use Policy

HTML Terms And Conditions

All Documentation Combined

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Inverse Queries ​

Inverse queries search for object's inverse keys that are supplied as an argument to a query. The query flag -i (or --inverse) must also be specified with appropriate query flag arguments. Inverse keys are defined in the templates of the RIPE Database objects. (See section 'RPSL Object Types' for more details.) These templates can be listed by querying the RIPE Database. See section 'Accessing the Object Templates' for more details. See Table 3: Query Flag Arguments to the “-” Query Flag and the Corresponding Inverse Keys

By performing an inverse query, the user requests all objects to be returned from the database that contain the specified query argument in the attribute(s) specified in the query flag arguments.

If you are looking for this......then type this in the query interface:
All objects where contact person (or role) is XY-RIPE-i person XY-RIPE
All objects that are protected by XY-MNT-i mnt-by XY-MNT
All objects that have XY-MNT as mnt-lower-i mnt-lower XY-MNT
All objects that have XY-MNT as mnt-routes-i mnt-routes XY-MNT
All objects that have ORG-XYZ-RIPE as their organisation object-i org ORG-XYZ-RIPE
All route/route6 objects that are originated by ASx-i origin ASx

Example:

whois -i admin-c <nic-handle>

will return all objects where the "admin-c:" attribute contains the <nic-handle> specified as the query argument.

You can specify several query flag arguments to request searches against several attributes in objects. If you want to do this, the query flag arguments should be entered as a comma-separated list with no white spaces. All the attributes searched must contain the same type of value. In other words, all the values must be maintainers or nic-handles or one of the other values listed in the appendix section on Supported Queries.

Example:

whois --inverse mb,mnt-lower <mntner name>

will return all objects where the "mnt-by:" or the "mnt-lower:" attributes contain the <mntner name> specified as the query argument.

Example:

An inverse query can be used to search for references to a person or role in objects. To find a person or role you could search for matching "admin-c", "tech-c", "abuse-c", "zone-c" attributes, however you need to specify all attributes separately. Instead you can specify "person" or "pn" to search all such attributes.

whois -i admin-c,tech-c,abuse-c,zone-c <person value>

will return the same results as

whois -i pn <person value> or whois -i person <person value>

Finding the references for a person is very useful when someone leaves the company and you want to delete all the registers from this person. Note that you can also specify a role instead of a person:

whois -i pn <role value>

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