Dear David, you wrote as reply to my mail:
From: davidk@isi.edu Message-Id: <9609261851.AA00711@old.isi.edu> Subject: Re: interesting person entry... To: noc@noc.dfn.de Date: Thu, 26 Sep 1996 11:51:51 -0700 (PDT) Cc: db-wg@ripe.net (Database Working Group) [...]
by accident I discovered a person entry which in its form is definitely not wanted:
*pn: Stefan Seiz *ad: Herdweg 73 *ad: \ ... > 128 empty address lines!!! *ad: / *ad: 70174 Stuttgart *ad: Germany [...] I am in no position to decide whether the entry was done including these empty lines or whether this is an error of the database software.
I am in such a position and found indeed a bug (It was the power of two that made me feel that there was a bigger problem then at first sight).
I could quickly trace the problem *and* have fixed the code.
Great! Thank you very much for this fast debugging! (and that it was done remotely from ISI ;-) [...]
The database working group might want to decide to completely disallow empty attribute lines inside a (non empty) attribute.
I personally feel that this should be done through the config file: give every attribute a property of allowed empty lines or not. For example 'remarks:' lines can be read easier when they may contain empty lines while empty rev-srv: lines are useless.
Wilfried: I suggest a collection of all attributes should be analyzed to see where empty lines are useful and where not. I currently do not have an overview of all attributes but I feel that - single ones - attributes used as reference (e.g. tech-c) - attributes necessary for administrative database purposes (e.g. changed or source) must not be empty (just as it came to my mind). I wonder how many attributes might be left over which could carry empty lines. I feel that the address attribute should not have empty lines. However, empty lines could be useful as David noted on the remark attribute. I guess this might be a point for the agenda of RIPE26... Thank you, David for this fast repsonse! Regards Joachim _____________________________________________________________________________ DFN Network Operation Center, Dr. Joachim Schmitz, (finger help@noc.dfn.de) >>>>>> mailto: noc@noc.dfn.de <<<<<< Rechenzentrum Universitaet Stuttgart, Allmandring 30, D-70550 Stuttgart Phone: 0711-685-5810, 0711-685-5576, FAX +711 6788363 (business hours) EMERGENCY phone +711 1319 139 with answering machine and pager _____________________________________________________________________________