[dbwg] ARIN WHOIS Server Definition

[ginny listman]

ARIN staff has been asked to publish the current WHOIS Server Definition
to the DBWG mailing list. Listed below is a document that fully defines
ARIN WHOIS.

Ginny Listman
Director of Engineering
ARIN

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           WHOIS SERVER DEFINITION

I. Uses of Whois
   a. As a troubleshooting aid
   b. For applications that use resource assignment information
   c. To show address space utilization
   d. In the future, to display routing objects

II. Formats
   a. The "default" format is displayed when querying Whois without any
      flags, and there is a single record returned. For ease of use all
      items will include labels. Any fields that have more than one line
      of data, for example, Address and Comment, will have only one label
      with all lines indented accordingly. The five registration types
      will be displayed as follows:

      i. Point Of Contact - display all attributes of the POC

         Name:       <last name, first name middle name> or <role account>
         Handle:     <point of contact handle>
         Company:    <company name>
         Address:    <postal address>
         Country:    <country code>
         Comment:    <comments>
         RegDate:    <YYYY-MM-DD>
         Updated:    <YYYY-MM-DD>
         Phone:      <phone number> <phone extension> (<phone type>)
         Email:      <email address>

         Note: Phone and Email may be repeated for multiple entries.
         Note: All POC handles end with -ARIN.

     ii. Organization - list the organization and all associated POCs

         OrgName:    <organization name>
         OrgID:      <organization ID>
         Address:    <address>
         Country:    <country code>
         Comment:    <comments>
         RegDate:    <YYYY-MM-DD>
         Updated:    <YYYY-MM-DD>

         <POC function>Handle: <POC handle>
         <POC function>Name:   <POC name>
         <POC function>Phone:  <office phone number> <phone extension>
         <POC function>Email:  <POC email address>

         Note: Organization POC functions include Admin, Tech, Abuse and
         NOC.

    iii. Autonomous System - list the organization, the autonomous system,
         POCs for the autonomous system, and POCs for the organization

         OrgName:    <organization name>
         OrgID:      <organization ID>

         ASNumber:   <autonomous system number or range>
         ASName:     <autonomous system name>
         ASHandle:   <autonomous system handle>
         Comment:    <comments>
         RegDate:    <YYYY-MM-DD>
         Updated:    <YYYY-MM-DD>

         <POC function>Handle: <POC handle>
         <POC function>Name:   <POC name>
         <POC function>Phone:  <office phone number> <phone extension>
         <POC function>Email:  <email address>

         Note: All POCs for the AS, if any, will be displayed. Only the
         organization's Tech, Abuse and NOC POCs will be displayed.

     iv. Organization Network - list the organization, the network,
         POCs for the network, POCs for the organization

         OrgName: <organization name>
         OrgID: <organization ID>

         NetRange:   <network address range>
         CIDR:       <network address blocks in CIDR format>
         NetName:    <network name>
         NetHandle:  <network handle>
         Parent:     <network handle of parent network>
         NetType:    <network type as define below>
         NameServer: <server name>
         Comment:    <comments>
         RegDate:    <YYYY-MM-DD>
         Updated:    <YYYY-MM-DD>

         <POC function>Handle: <POC handle>
         <POC function>Name:   <POC name>
         <POC function>Phone:  <office phone number> <phone extension>
         <POC function>Email:  <POC email address>

         Note: All POCs for the network, if any, will be displayed.  Only
         the organization's Tech, Abuse and NOC POCs will be displayed.
         NameServer will be repeated for multiple servers.

      v. Customer Network - list the customer, the network

         CustName:   <customer name>
         Address:    <address>
         Country:    <country code>
         RegDate:    <YYYY-MM-DD>
         Updated:    <YYYY-MM-DD>

         NetRange:   <network address range>
         CIDR:       <network address blocks in CIDR format>
         NetName:    <network name>
         NetHandle:  <network handle>
         Parent:     <network handle of parent network>
         NetType:    <network type as defined below>
         Comment:    <comments>
         RegDate:    <YYYY-MM-DD>
         Updated:    <YYYY-MM-DD>

         Note: Customer records will not contain POCs.

      Net Types include: Allocated to APNIC
                         Allocated to ARIN
                         Allocated to RIPE NCC
                         Direct Allocation
                         Direct Assignment
                         Early Registrations, Maintained by ARIN
                         Early Registrations, Maintained by APNIC
                         Early Registrations, Maintained by RIPE NCC
                         IANA Reserved
                         IANA Special Use
                         Reallocated
                         Reassigned

   b. The "list" format is returned when querying Whois without specifying
      any flags, and there are multiple records returned. Labels are not
      included. The fields that are displayed are outlined below.
      i. Point Of Contact - last, first and middle name or role name,
         handle, one email address, one office phone number
     ii. Organization - organization name, organization ID
    iii. Autonomous System - organization name, handle, AS name, AS number
     iv. Network - organization name, network name, handle, network range

III. Query Flags. There are different types of flags that can be used to
     narrow the search. In general, you may use only one from each
     category, except where explicitly stated.

   a. Query by type. To narrow a search, a query can include one of the
      listed flags (either upper or lower case) to indicate the object
      type as follows:
      i. a <query string> will return only autonomous systems
     ii. c <query string> will return only customer networks
    iii. n <query string> will return only networks
     iv. o <query string> will return only organizations
      v. p <query string> will return only point-of-contacts

   b. Query by attribute. To narrow a search, a query can also include a
      flag as follows:
      i. ! <identifier> will return the single match of the unique
         identifier for a record (Org ID for Organizations, handle for all
         other records)
     ii. @ <domain-part> will return the POC[s] with the specified domain-
         part in the email address
    iii. . <name> will return the records that match the 'name' field on
         the record

   c. Query hierarchy. To display related records, a query can also
      include a flag as follows:
      i. < <query string> will return the record related up the hierarchy.
         For a network, display the supernet, or parent network in
         detailed format.
     ii. > <query string> will return the records related down the
         hierarchy. For a network, display the subdelegations or subnets,
         below the network in summary format. For an organization, display
         the resources registered to that organization in summary format.

   d. Display flags. To modify the way the query results display, include
     one of the following flags:
      i. + <query string> will display 'full' output for each match (This
         command cannot be used with the > flag)
     ii. - <query string> will display 'list', even if single match found

IV. Additional features
   a. ? will display the help screen
   b. <query string>* will show a list of all matches starting with the
      given string. Note, the * can only be used at the end of a query.
   c. The maximum number of records output for each record type is limited
      to 256.