[DBWG] WHOIS filtering and the "-B" option

[Alan Barrett]

> On 18 Nov 2016, at 14:17, Keessun Fokeerah <keessun.fokeerah at afrinic.net> wrote:
> Someone who does not know how to use the whois and does a query for an IP resource will be told how to get the full output without any "filtered":
> 
> whois -h whois.afrinic.net AS30999
> % This is the AfriNIC Whois server.
> 
> % Note: this output has been filtered.
> %       To receive output for a database update, use the "-B" flag.
> 
> The AFRINIC WHOIS will actually tell you to use "-B" flag, when you did not do so!

I find that text confusing.  As a naive user, I would not know that “this output has been filtered” means “email addresses have been removed”, and I also don’t know that “To receive output for a database update” means “To receive all the output, without anything being removed."

> In fact, by using "egrep -v '^%|^$" some people are actually ignoring this useful tip/output.

My examples deliberately removed the blank lines and comments, so it could focus on the chnges to the data.

Alan Barrett