In message <58150673.5090201@foobar.org>, Nick Hilliard <nick@foobar.org> wrote:
David Conrad already pointed out that this problem has been solved using RDAP which supports referrals. Try installing the nicinfo command from:
https://github.com/arineng/nicinfo
At a guess, I'd say referrals haven't been implemented in whois because the whois "protocol" is unfixably broken and unsuitable for distributed information sharing.
So basically, you're saying that the fact that port 43 is still open and still providing answers... known inaccurante answers... at all of the following places is just one big tease? whois.iana.org whois.arin.net whois.ripe.net whois.apnic.net whois.lacnic.net whois.afrinic.net So the overall game plan is to continue to have these things all give out inaccurate and/or misleanding answers until such time as all of the trusting old school hacks like me either die out or get the memo telling us to just stop using this stuff? If so, thanks for telling me. Nobody else has so far had the courtesy to do so. Regards, rfg P.S. Traditional WHOIS supports referrals. For an example, try this: whois -h whois.iana.org 1197 (Providing referrals in traditional WHOIS isn't exactly rocket surgery. The fact that certain RIRs may be too... umm... preoccupied to take the time to properly populate their data bases with such referrals notwithstanding.)