NAME

Net::Whois::Raw - Perl extension for unparsed raw whois information

SYNOPSIS

  use Net::Whois::Raw;
  
  $s = whois('perl.com');
  $s = whois('funet.fi');
  $s = whois('yahoo.co.uk');

  $OMIT_MSG = 1; # This will attempt to strip several known copyright
		messages and disclaimers sorted by servers.
		Default is to give the whole response.

  $OMIT_MSG = 2; # This will try some additional stripping rules
		if none are known for the spcific server.

  $CHECK_FAIL = 1; # This will return undef if the response matches
		one of the known patterns for a failed search,
		sorted by servers.
		Default is to give the textual response.

  $CHECK_FAIL = 2; # This will match against several more rules
		if none are known for the specific server.

  $CACHE_DIR = "/var/spool/pwhois/"; # Whois information will be
		cached in this directory. Default is no cache.

  $CACHE_TIME = 24; # Cache files will be cleared after not accessed
		for a specific number of hours. Documents will not be
		cleared if they keep get requested for, independent
		of disk space. Default is not to clear the cache.

  $USE_CNAMES = 1; # Use whois-servers.net to get the whois server
		name when possible. Default is to use the 
		hardcoded defaults.

DESCRIPTION

Net::Whois::Raw queries NetworkSolutions and follows the Registrar: answer for ORG, EDU, COM and NET domains. For other TLDs it uses the whois-servers.net namespace. ($TLD.whois-servers.net).

Setting the variables $OMIT_MSG and $CHECK_FAIL will match the results against a set of known patterns. The first flag will try to omit the copyright message/disclaimer, the second will attempt to determine if the search failed and return undef in such a case.

IMPORTANT: these checks merely use pattern matching; they will work on several servers but certainly not on all of them.

(This features were contributed by Walery Studennikov despair@sama.ru)

AUTHOR

Ariel Brosh, schop@cpan.org, Inspired by jwhois.pl available on the net.

CREDITS

Fixed regular expression to match hyphens. (Peter Chow, peter@interq.or.jp)

Added support for Tonga TLD. (.to) (Peter Chow, peter@interq.or.jp)

Added support for reverse lookup of IP addresses via the ARIN registry. (Alex Withers awithers@gonzaga.edu)

This will work now for RIPE addresses as well, according to a redirection from ARIN. (Philip Hands phil@uk.alcove.com, Trevor Peirce trev@digitalcon.ca)

Added the pattern matching switches, (Walery Studennikov despair@sama.ru)

Modified pattern matching, added cache. (Tony L. Svanstrom tony@svanstrom.org)

CLARIFICATION

As NetworkSolutions got most of the domains of InterNic as legacy, we start by querying their server, as this way one whois query would be sufficient for many domains. Starting at whois.internic.net or whois.crsnic.net will result in always two requests in any case.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2000-2002 Ariel Brosh.

This package is free software. You may redistribute it or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

I apologize for any misunderstandings caused by the lack of a clear licence in previous versions.

COMMERCIAL SUPPORT

As of May 2001, commercial support for modules by SCHOP@CPAN is available via Raz Information Systems, Israel. Mail raz@raz.co.il for details. Note: this is only for commercial organizations in need of support contracts. You are not requested to pay anything to use the module in your organization for a commercial application and there are no royalties for redistributing it to your customers. Also, the copyright is mine and not of the supporting company.

SEE ALSO

perl(1), Net::Whois.