Dear All, [ Apologies for duplicate messages ] This mail is to inform you that version 3.0 beta of the RIPE Whois Database is out. Read on! You will be affected too. The RIPE Database is about to change its data format, from RIPE181 to RPSL (the Routing Policy Specification Language, see RFC2622). This will affect all object types, including "person", "domain" and "inetnum". The version 2 of the RIPE Database, the one currently in production on whois.ripe.net, will in the next months be replaced by version 3. All the entries in the RIPE Database will be translated into RPSL format, and that is the format you will get when you will be querying the Database. Don't be mistaken: for the moment, whois.ripe.net continues running with version 2 and answering to your queries in the old-fashioned way. But this will not last forever; in a few months, all will become RPSL. So if you use the Whois database, we encourage all of you to prepare for this change as soon as possible. We strongly suggest you to start to get used to RPSL and version 3.0 . In this aim, you can do the following: - Query rpsl.ripe.net at port 43. You will find there exactly the same objects that are in whois.ripe.net, mirrored live and in RPSL format. - If you have any script that runs by querying whois.ripe.net, test it by pointing it to rpsl.ripe.net and make it v3.0-compliant. - Try our CGI interface to the RPSL server: you can find it at http://www.ripe.net/ripencc/pub-services/db/reimp/. - Get to know the new update path: use our "sandbox" database for RPSL updates. Send your updates to <auto-rip@ripe.net> and query the corresponding database at rpsl.ripe.net, port 4343 . Remember that in a few months, that's the way the RIPE Database will be running; so the earlier you start working with it, the less likely you are to be unpleasantly surprised later. We are currently preparing additional resources to help ease the transition; we will announce them as soon as they are available, which will happen later this month. Please note that the software is still in a "beta" phase. So we need your feedback! If you happen to find something that looks like a bug when you are testing the RPSL database, don't hesitate... Send us a bug report at <dbrip@ripe.net> ! If you want to actively participate to the migration effort, you could join the "RIP migration Task force" and let yourself be heard. Just write to <ripe-dbm@ripe.net> and ask to join the Task Force. For the ones interested in viewing or trying the code, you can download it at: ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/dbase/reimp/whois-rip-3.0beta1.tar.gz You can also join a discussion list related to version 3.0 beta of the RIPE Database Software. To subscribe to this list, send a message to <majordomo@ripe.net> with the line: subscribe db-beta in the body of your letter. It is a moderated mailing list so some delays in subscription are possible. Regards, The RIPE Database Group.