dfoley wrote:

This document is very confusing.

The section : "(3) Adding 'abuse output' Option " describes the changes to the result returned for "$ whois 10.0.0.10". However the result displayed is actually the result before the change. This is followed by a description of the result of "$ whois -b 10.0.0.10". The result includes "e-mail:" attributes but no "abuse-mailbox:" attribute.

That is an error. I'll get this fixed.

So which request do I use to obtain the "abuse-mailbox:" attibute? . In your examples it is only returned with the "$ whois -L 10.0.0.10". And yet I am supposed to use the "$ whois -b 10.0.0.10" to get the abuse contacts. Should I expect to ignore the attributes and treat any email address returned with the "whois -b" request as an abuse contact?

I have tried using the "whois -b" and I have yet to get a result without ERROR appearing.

It works when you look up a network with "mnt-irt:" http://www.ripe.net/fcgi-bin/whois?-b+131.220.0.0 One possible improvement might be to make the "-b" flag work like this: - If there is "mnt-irt:" work as now - Otherwise, do a normal query, and output "e-mail:" -- Shane