Infinite loops in client processes --

[Paul Townsend]

-----
Second try.  I wasn't registered the first time.  I apologize if it's a
duplicate.

Recently, I've encountered a number of infinite referral loops (ranges supplied 
below).  I use both rwhois-client-1.6.1 and a modified version of jwhois that 
understands a basic set of the rwhois syntax.  I've modified the jwhois variant 
to the point where it can detect the loop and display a message about it.

RFC2167 describes this condition (Section 3.3.7) as a "recursive referral" and 
suggests that a "-notify recurref ..." directive be sent back the the server 
when the loop is encountered.  My question is to which of the servers should 
the directive be sent?    Below are the query paths that the modified jwhois 
followed where it detected a loop.  Note that the start of the "rwhois" portion
of the loop depended on how the request was phrased.

--    Paul Townsend (alpha alpha beta At purdue Dot edu)

Current infinite referral loop ranges.
  74.0.0.0/15
  74.128.0.0/12
  207.245.0.0/18

#1704 aab at aab = ./jwhois -rd 74.0.0.0  <== explicit rwhois (-r) request
[Querying rwhois.arin.net - rwhois]
[Querying rwhois.covad.net - rwhois]
[Querying root.rwhois.net - rwhois]
[Querying rwhois.arin.net - rwhois]
[Infinite Query Loop - host="rwhois.arin.net" encountered before.]

#1705 aab at aab = ./jwhois -d 74.0.0.0  <== normal "whois" request
[Querying whois.arin.net - whois]
[Redirected to rwhois.covad.net:4321]
[Querying rwhois.covad.net - rwhois]
[Querying root.rwhois.net - rwhois]
[Querying rwhois.arin.net - rwhois]
[Querying rwhois.covad.net - rwhois]
[Infinite Query Loop - host="rwhois.covad.net" encountered before.]

#1706 aab at aab = ./jwhois -dh root.rwhois.net 74.0.0.0
				      <== explicit request to start at
					  the rwhois root server
[Querying root.rwhois.net - rwhois]
[Querying rwhois.arin.net - rwhois]
[Querying rwhois.covad.net - rwhois]
[Querying root.rwhois.net - rwhois]
[Infinite Query Loop - host="root.rwhois.net" encountered before.]