NAME

Net::RDAP - an interface to the Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP).

SYNOPSIS

use Net::RDAP;

my $rdap = Net::RDAP->new;

#
# traditional lookup:
#

# get domain info:
$object = $rdap->domain(Net::DNS::Domain->new('example.com'));

# get info about IP addresses/ranges:
$object = $rdap->ip(Net::IP->new('192.168.0.1'));
$object = $rdap->ip(Net::IP->new('2001:DB8::/32'));

# get info about AS numbers:
$object = $rdap->autnum(Net::ASN->new(65536));

#
# search functions:
#

my $server = Net::RDAP::Service->new("https://www.example.com/rdap");

# search for domains by name:
my $result = $server->domains('name' => 'ex*mple.com');

# search for entities by name:
my $result = $server->entities('fn' => 'J*n Doe');

# search for nameservers by IP address:
my $result = $server->nameservers('ip' => '192.168.56.101');

DESCRIPTION

Net::RDAP provides an interface to the Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP).

RDAP is gradually replacing Whois as the preferred way of obtainining information about Internet resources (IP addresses, autonymous system numbers, and domain names). As of writing, RDAP is quite well-supported by Regional Internet Registries (who are responsible for the allocation of IP addresses and AS numbers) but is still being rolled out among domain name registries and registrars.

Net::RDAP does all the hard work of determining the correct server to query (Net::RDAP::Registry is an interface to the IANA registry of RDAP services), querying the server (Net::RDAP::UA is an RDAP HTTP user agent), and parsing the response (Net::RDAP::Object and its submodules provide access to the data returned by the server). As such, it provides a single unified interface to information about all unique Internet identifiers.

METHODS

Constructor

$rdap = Net::RDAP->new(%OPTIONS);

Constructor method, returns a new object. %OPTIONS is optional, but may contain any of the following options:

  • use_cache - if true, copies of RDAP responses are stored on disk, and are updated if the copy on the server is more up-to-date. This behaviour is disabled by default and must be explicitly enabled.

  • debug - if true, tells Net::RDAP::UA to print all HTTP requests and responses to STDERR.

Domain Lookup

$object = $rdap->domain($domain);

This method returns a Net::RDAP::Object::Domain object containing information about the domain name referenced by $domain.

$domain must be a Net::DNS::Domain object or a string containing a fully-qualified domain name. The domain may be either a "forward" domain (such as example.com) or a "reverse" domain (such as 168.192.in-addr.arpa).

If there was an error, this method will return a Net::RDAP::Error.

Note on Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs)

Domain names which contain characters other than those from the ASCII-compatible range must be encoded into "A-label" (or "Punycode") format before being passed to Net::DNS::Domain. You can use Net::LibIDN or Net::LibIDN2 to perform this encoding:

use Net::LibIDN;

my $name = "espécime.com";

my $domain = $rdap->domain->(Net::DNS::Domain->new(idn_to_ascii($name, 'UTF-8')));

IP Lookup

$object = $rdap->ip($ip);

This method returns a Net::RDAP::Object::IPNetwork object containing information about the resource referenced by $ip.

$ip must be either a Net::IP object or a string, and can represent any of the following:

  • An IPv4 address (e.g. 192.168.0.1);

  • An IPv4 CIDR range (e.g. 192.168.0.1/16);

  • An IPv6 address (e.g. 2001:DB8::42:1);

  • An IPv6 CIDR range (e.g. 2001:DB8::/32).

If there was an error, this method will return a Net::RDAP::Error.

AS Number Lookup

$object = $rdap->autnum($autnum);

This method returns a Net::RDAP::Object::Autnum object containing information about the autonymous system referenced by $autnum.

$autnum must be a Net::ASN object or an literal integer AS number.

If there was an error, this method will return a Net::RDAP::Error.

Entity Lookup

$entity = $rdap->entity($handle);

This method returns a Net::RDAP::Object::Entity object containing information about the entity referenced by $handle, which must be a string containing a "tagged" handle, such as ABC123-EXAMPLE, as per RFC 8521.

Directly Fetching Known Resources

$object = $rdap->fetch($url, %OPTIONS);

$object = $rdap->fetch($link, %OPTIONS);

$object = $rdap->fetch($object, %OPTIONS);

The first and second forms of the fetch() method retrieve the resource identified by $url or $link (which must be either a URI or Net::RDAP::Link object), and return a Net::RDAP::Object object (assuming that the server returns a valid RDAP response). This method is used internally by query() but is also available for when you need to directly fetch a resource without using the IANA registry, such as for nameserver or untagged entity queries.

The third form allows the method to be called on an existing Net::RDAP::Object. Objects which are embedded inside other objects (such as the entities and nameservers which are associated with a domain name) may be truncated or redacted in some way: this method form allows you to obtain the full object. Here's an example:

$rdap = Net::RDAP->new;

$domain = $rdap->domain(Net::DNS::Domain->new('example.com'));

foreach my $ns ($domain->nameservers) {
	# $ns is a "stub" object, containing only the host name and a "self" link

	my $nameserver = $rdap->fetch($ns);

	# $nameserver is now fully populated
}

In order for this form to work, the object must have a self link: Net::RDAP will auto-create one for objects that don't have one if it can.

%OPTIONS is an optional hash containing additional options for the query. The following options are supported:

  • user and pass: if provided, they will be sent to the server in an HTTP Basic Authorization header field.

  • class_override: allows you to set or override the objectClassName property in RDAP responses.

Performing Searches

RDAP supports a limited search capability, but you need to know in advance which RDAP server you want to send the search query to. The Net::RDAP::Service class allows you to prepare and submit search queries to specific RDAP servers.

RDAP User Agent

# access the user agent
$ua = $rdap->ua;

# specify a cookie jar
$rdap->ua->cookie_jar('/tmp/cookies.txt');

# specify a proxy
$rdap->ua->proxy([qw(http https)], 'https://proxy.example.com');

You can access the Net::RDAP::UA object used to communicate with RDAP servers using the ua() method. This allows you to configure additional HTTP features such as a file to store cookies, proxies, custom user-agent strings, etc.

HOW TO CONTRIBUTE

Net::RDAP is a work-in-progress; if you would like to help, the project is hosted here:

DISTRIBUTION

The Net::RDAP CPAN distribution contains a large number of# RDAP-related modules that all work together. They are:

DEPENDENCIES

REFERENCES

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2022 CentralNic Ltd. All rights reserved.

LICENSE

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation, and that the name of the author not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific prior written permission.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.