
RIPE whois tools 2.0

This is a set of C programs (perl versions of the same programs are
available in the RIPE database distribution) to be used in conjunction
with the RIPE database. It contains the following programs:

Edit the Makefile for your local environment. You might want to set the
SYSV define in the DEFINES line for system V machines.

- whois 

  The RIPE version of the whois client program.
  
  This is intended for European users as it will query a RIPE whois
  server with extended whois capabilities rather than a standard whois
  protocol server. The whois program is fully compatible with the
  standard whois protocol and can thus replace your default whois
  program.
  
  This program is aware of quite some extra flags that the standard whois
  doesn't support. Just try 'whois' without arguments to see an
  explanation of these. Please note that most of these flags are NOT
  supported by non RIPE whois servers. In cases where you use this client
  to query non RIPE whois servers, you should not use any of these
  flags.
 
- networkupdate

  A program that allows updating the RIPE database with the whois
  protocol instead of the usual E-mail interface. This program can
  usually only be used by the administrators of the whois server itself.
  The updating mechanism is too powerfull (for now) to allow the general
  public to use this mechanism. The server is protected by means of an
  accesslist.
  
- cryptpw

  Calculate a crypted password with given password and salt.
  
  This password can then be used in the 'auth:' field of maintainer
  objects.
  

