Accessing the Object Templates
To create or modify an object you may need to access the template for that object. These are shown along with a detailed description of each attribute and its value in section 4. RPSL Object Types.
From almost any computer, if you have a terminal window with a command line prompt, you can use either netcat (nc) or telnet commands to obtain any of the object templates. For this purpose, they both do the same job, but netcat is considered to have better error handling than telnet.
For example, getting the template for an inetnum object using these methods:
Using netcat in a terminal window to obtain an object template:
$ nc whois.ripe.net 43
% This is the RIPE Database query service.
% The objects are in RPSL format.
%
% The RIPE Database is subject to Terms and Conditions.
% See http://www.ripe.net/db/support/db-terms-conditions.pdf
-t inetnum
inetnum: [mandatory] [single] [primary/lookup key]
netname: [mandatory] [single] [lookup key]
descr: [mandatory] [multiple] [ ]
country: [mandatory] [multiple] [ ]
geofeed: [optional] [single] [ ]
geoloc: [optional] [single] [ ]
language: [optional] [multiple] [ ]
org: [optional] [single] [inverse key]
sponsoring-org: [optional] [single] [inverse key]
admin-c: [mandatory] [multiple] [inverse key]
tech-c: [mandatory] [multiple] [inverse key]
abuse-c: [optional] [single] [inverse key]
status: [mandatory] [single] [ ]
remarks: [optional] [multiple] [ ]
notify: [optional] [multiple] [inverse key]
mnt-by: [mandatory] [multiple] [inverse key]
mnt-lower: [optional] [multiple] [inverse key]
mnt-domains: [optional] [multiple] [inverse key]
mnt-routes: [optional] [multiple] [inverse key]
mnt-irt: [optional] [multiple] [inverse key]
created: [generated] [single] [ ]
last-modified: [generated] [single] [ ]
source: [mandatory] [single] [ ]
% This query was served by the RIPE Database Query Service version 1.92.5 (ANGUS)
$
Using telnet in a terminal window to obtain an object template:
$ telnet whois.ripe.net 43
Trying 2001:67c:2e8:22::c100:687...
Connected to whois.ripe.net.
Escape character is '^]'.
% This is the RIPE Database query service.
% The objects are in RPSL format.
%
% The RIPE Database is subject to Terms and Conditions.
% See http://www.ripe.net/db/support/db-terms-conditions.pdf
-t inetnum
inetnum: [mandatory] [single] [primary/lookup key]
netname: [mandatory] [single] [lookup key]
descr: [mandatory] [multiple] [ ]
country: [mandatory] [multiple] [ ]
geofeed: [optional] [single] [ ]
geoloc: [optional] [single] [ ]
language: [optional] [multiple] [ ]
org: [optional] [single] [inverse key]
sponsoring-org: [optional] [single] [ ]
admin-c: [mandatory] [multiple] [inverse key]
tech-c: [mandatory] [multiple] [inverse key]
abuse-c: [optional] [single] [inverse key]
status: [mandatory] [single] [ ]
remarks: [optional] [multiple] [ ]
notify: [optional] [multiple] [inverse key]
mnt-by: [mandatory] [multiple] [inverse key]
mnt-lower: [optional] [multiple] [inverse key]
mnt-domains: [optional] [multiple] [inverse key]
mnt-routes: [optional] [multiple] [inverse key]
mnt-irt: [optional] [multiple] [inverse key]
created: [generated] [single] [ ]
last-modified: [generated] [single] [ ]
source: [mandatory] [single] [ ]
% This query was served by the RIPE Database Query Service version 1.92.5 (ANGUS)
Connection closed by foreign host.
$
To obtain the template with the full description of each attribute and its value, use -v instead of -t in the above commands. Once you have the template, it can be copied into an email message or pasted into a web form or added into a script to generate objects. To create an object from the template, you must remove all the attribute lines that you do not want. For the remaining lines, you must replace the description with the value. Where an attribute is multiple, further lines can be added with additional values.
With some update methods the template is provided for you - for example, when using Webupdates. If you select to create a new object using field mode it presents a set of fields matching all the mandatory attributes for the selected object type. Optional attributes can be selected from a drop-down menu. More instances of any given attribute can be inserted. If you choose the text area mode, a list of all attributes is presented in the text area. The mandatory attributes are in upper case and the optional attributes are in lower case. Delete the optional ones you don't want to use. The software later converts all attribute names to lower case.
The Webupdates text area template can be used to present a template to be cut and pasted in another form or medium. The Webupdates object creation process does not present the full template information. It only shows lists of attributes. To get the full template details, as shown in section 4. RPSL Object Types, use the Web Query form (by selecting the Query option from Webupdates) and enter the following query for the appropriate object type as the 'Search term':
-t inetnum
Using -v instead of -t in the Web Query form will present the longer output describing all the attributes.