[arin-tech-discuss] Trouble deleting obsolete route objects from ARIN routing registry

[1&1 ARIN Role (Axel Fischer)]

Hi there,
while trying to cleanup our route objects in the ARIN RR I got stuck deleting
two more specific route objects that are no longer in use. The covering less
specific is 74.208.0.0/16. But 74.208.0.0/17 and 74.208.128.0/18 are not
"deletable" because I didn't get the output as expected:

# covering prefix
$ whois -h rr.arin.net -B 74.208.0.0/16
% This is the ARIN Routing Registry.

% Information related to '74.208.0.0/16AS8560'

route:          74.208.0.0/16
descr:          1&1 Internet Inc.
                701 Lee Rd, Suite 300
                Chesterbrook, PA 19087
                US
origin:         AS8560
remarks:        CUSTOMERS-6
mnt-by:         MNT-11INT
changed:        arin-role at oneandone.net 20090813
source:         ARIN
</snip>

# more specifics
$ whois -h rr.arin.net -B 74.208.128.0/18
% This is the ARIN Routing Registry.

% Information related to '74.208.128.0/18AS8560'

route:          74.208.128.0/18
descr:          CUSTOMERS-5
origin:         AS8560
mnt-by:         MNT-11INT
changed:        noc at 1and1.com 20080411
source:         ARIN # Filtered
</snip>

$ whois -h rr.arin.net -B 74.208.0.0/17
% This is the ARIN Routing Registry.

% Information related to '74.208.0.0/17AS8560'

route:          74.208.0.0/17
descr:          CUSTOMERS-4
origin:         AS8560
mnt-by:         MNT-11INT
changed:        noc at 1and1.com 20080411
source:         ARIN # Filtered
</snip>

$ whois -h rr.arin.net help | grep -A1 "\-B"
% -B               Disables the filtering of "notify:", "changed:" and "e-mail:"
%                  attributes.


The error message clearly states that I didn't got the exact match:
===========================================================================
Delete FAILED: [route] 74.208.128.0/18AS8560
***Info: Syntax check passed

route:           74.208.128.0/18
descr:           CUSTOMERS-5
origin:          AS8560
mnt-by:          MNT-11INT
changed:         noc at 1and1.com 20080411
source:          ARIN
delete: 		obsolete
***Error: This does not exactly match the object stored in the database.
===========================================================================

Is this a bug or feature? Am I missing something?


Regards,
Axel

-- 
Axel Fischer
Network Engineer

1&1 Internet AG
Brauerstrasse 48
D-76135 Karlsruhe

http://www.1und1.de (AS8560)

Amtsgericht Montabaur HRB 6484
Vorstand: Henning Ahlert, Ralph Dommermuth, Matthias Ehrlich, Robert
Hoffmann, Markus Huhn, Hans-Henning Kettler, Dr. Oliver Mauss, Jan Oetjen
Aufsichtsratsvorsitzender: Michael Scheeren