whois: Issue a 'WHOIS' query and retrieve the response

In hrbrmstr/pwhois: Issue 'WHOIS' Queries and Process Various 'WHOIS' Resoponses

Description

WHOIS (pronounced as the phrase "who is") is a query and response protocol that is widely used for querying databases that store the registered users or assignees of an Internet resource, such as a domain name, an IP address block or an autonomous system, but is also used for a wider range of other information. The protocol stores and delivers database content in a human- readable format. The current iteration of the WHOIS protocol was drafted by the Internet Society, and is documented in RFC 3912.

Usage

whois(
  query,
  host = "whois.pwhois.org",
  port = 43L,
  timeout = getOption("timeout")
)

Arguments

query	<chr> the text query to send to the destination whois host
host	<chr> the WHOIS host to query; This defaults to The Prefix WhoIs Project WHOIS server (a.k.a. "pwhois") as it allows for more robust queries to be performed.
port	<int> TCP port the host WHOIS server is running on; defaults to 43 (the standard WHOIS port)
timeout	connection timeout; see connections

Details

The default server — whois.pwhois.org — is The Prefix WhoIs Project WHOIS server which provides a whois-compatible client and server framework for disclosing various up-to-date routing information. Instead of using registrar-originated network information (which is often unspecific or inaccurate), Prefix WhoIs uses the Internet's global routing table as gleaned from a number of routing peers around the world. Other sources of information, such as imported data from ARIN are also supported.

The pwhois service supports special query types including:

• registry key=value: you can search the pwhois database for any registry field. The ones available at the time of the date on this package are: "Origin-AS", "Prefix", "AS-Path", "AS-Org-Name", "Org-Name", "Net-Name", "Cache-Date", "Latitude", "Longitude", "City", "Region" , "Country" , and "Country-Code"

• type=cymru: The record(s) will be returned in Team Cymru format and tidy_cymru() can be used to post-process the response.

• type=rpsl: The record(s) will be returned in Routing Policy Specification Language (RPSL) format. A 'tidy' post-processor is on the TODO list. PRs are welcome.

This function can also be used to query the Team Cymru WHOIS server which supports various enhanced queries. See the link for more information. tidy_cymru() can be used to post-process these responses.

Value

raw character response from the host WHOIS server. Use the built-in tidying functions to post-process the response.

Examples

whois("registry org-name=apple, inc") # 'registry' is only supported on pwhois
whois('type=cymru 17.253.144.10') # 'type=cymru' is only supported on pwhois
whois('type=rpsl 17.253.144.10') # 'type=rpsl' is only supported on pwhois
whois('-v AS23028', "whois.cymru.com") # this only works with the Team Cymru WHOIS service
whois("17.253.144.10")

hrbrmstr/pwhois documentation built on April 26, 2021, 5:45 a.m.