Prefix-based whois server for network operators

1. The 'pwhois-updatedb' program downloads the global routing table from a router or route-view server of your choosing and stores this data (about 220,000+ prefixes, and over 5 million unique entries (from some route-views)) in a PostgreSQL database. With a cron script this data can be updated at an interval of your choosing, however we recommend not more frequent than every 4 hours (to be considerate of the route-view server from which you pull the data). pwhois-updatedb is smart enough to merge the data and expire records that are no longer in the global routing table, so this provides some limit to the amount of disk space you will need.

 

2. The 'pwhoisd' server process serves up this information to clients over the whois protocol (port 43/tcp). In addition, the pwhoisd daemon supports some new query types and output formats including its own internal pwhois format, Team Cymru's output format (see www.cymru.com), and RPSL (RFC 2622) for further compatibility. pwhoisd also supports bulk queries for integration with other processes, including Layer Four Traceroute (LFT), which is popular with network engineers.