The purpose of the Whois Selftest Tool is to help gTLD Registry Operators prepare for Registry System Testing (RST) by providing pre-RST Whois output validation. (PDT is now part of RST.)
While Whois Selftest Tool does validate Whois output and it does strive to reflect the state of RST Whois output validation, it is not authoritative on the outcome of RST and it is subject to change.
The Whois Selftest Tool and the actual Whois testing under RST are not equal. We strive to make the two as equal as possible, but here is no guarantee that successfully running the Whois Selftest Tool means that the same Whois system will pass the Whois testing under RST. For example, the parts of Whois tests under Whois that include DNS lookups and TCP connections are not included in the Whois Selftest Tool. For a complete reference of the Whois tests under RST see the RST Whois document listed under the references below.
- v1.0.0 - Initial public release (2015-12-03)
- v1.1.0 - Updated public release (2016-01-08)
- v1.2.0 - Updated public release (2016-02-02)
- v1.3.0 - Updated public release (2016-02-26)
- v1.4.0 - Updated public release (2016-11-01)
- v1.4.1 - No public release
- v1.3.1 - No public release
- v1.4.2 - Updated public release (2017-03-23, on Github 2017-08-24)
- v1.4.3 - Updated public release (2018-10-09)
- v1.4.4 - Updated public release (2019-01-18)
- v1.4.5 - Updated public release (2019-05-02)
- v1.4.6 - Updated public release (2021-03-19)
The v1.1.0 release primarily matches the updates to the PDT Whois TP and TCs in the version 2.9 document release. It also handles the issue with IDN in the v1.0.0 release and corrects found bugs.
The v1.2.0 release primarily matches the updates to the PDT Whois TP in the the version 2.10 document release. It also corrects found bugs.
The v1.3.0 release includes two updates of the PDT Whois TP that will be included in the next document release:
- If the Domain Status is "ok" then the fragment in the URL in the Domain Status field may be "ok" or "OK".
- If a field is empty (key is there, but no value) there may be one space character (U+0020) after the colon, i.e. trailing space is permitted.
The v1.4.0 release updates Whois Selftest Tool to match the new format requirements specified in "Registry Registration Data Directory Services Consistent Labeling and Display Policy".
The v1.4.1 release updates Whois Selftest Tool with two improvements:
- Better error message when fields of type "optional-constrained", "empty-constrained" or "omitted-constrained" are not following the specification.
- Improved error message when "Registrar Abuse Contact Phone" (or "... Email") is empty.
The v1.3.1 release only updates the debian/changelog for IIS internal package building.
The v1.4.2 release corrects a bug and a Perl warning only seen in Perl 5.18 or higher.
The v1.4.2 release now refer to the RST documents.
The v1.4.3 release adapts the requirements to GDPR and "Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data".
The v1.4.4 release removes incorrect rejection of Whois responses with additional fields.
The v1.4.5 release adds an option to whois-test to make it ignore any line ending
errors. It also corrects the examples in the man page.
The v1.4.6 release corrects the comparison between "Domain Name" field and the "Internationalized Domain Name" field with the latter contains an ASCII label in upper case.
Refer to this compatibility matrix when deciding which version of Whois Selftest Tool to use. Use the latest version of Whois Selftest Tool to match the latest version of the RST Whois Test Area Specification document.
| Whois Selftest Tool | PDT/RST Document Release | PDT Whois Test Plan | PDT Whois CLI Test Cases | RST Whois Test Area |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| v1.0.0 | 2.8 | |||
| v1.1.0 | 2.9 | |||
| v1.2.0 | 2.10 | |||
| v1.3.0 | See note above. | J | H | - |
| v1.4.0 | 2.11 | K | I | - |
| v1.4.1 | 2.11 | K | I | - |
| v1.3.1 | See note above. | J | H | - |
| v1.4.2 | 2.11 | K | I | - |
| v1.4.2 | 3.0 | - | - | B |
| v1.4.3 | 3.1 | - | - | C |
| v1.4.4 | 3.1 | - | - | C |
| v1.4.5 | 3.1 | - | - | C |
| v1.4.6 | 3.1 | - | - | C |
Note: Whois Selftest Tool versions v1.3.0 and v1.3.1 are based on PDT Document Release 2.10 plus two additional updates described above.
The plan is to release new versions of the tool whenever the underlying requirements on Whois testing as specified in RST Whois Test Area Specification has been changed. The plan is also to solve known issues and bugs of importance. New versions will be released when such fixes are stable.
The old Pre-Delegation Testing microsite hosts the old PDT documents relevant to old versions of Whois Selftest Tool.
- Find the PDT Test Specifications zip file.
- The PDT Whois CLI Test Cases document, within the zip file, specifies the test cases that the Whois Selftest Tool partially implements.
- The PDT Whois Test Plan document, within the zip file, specifies the format specification that the Whois Selftest Tool implements.
In PDT Whois Test Plan you can find references to other useful documents.
For the most current information, go to the the Registry System Testing (RST) site instead.
The Registry System Testing site at ICANN hosts the RST documents relevant to the Whois Selftest Tool.
- Find the RST Test Specifications zip file.
- The RST Whois Test Area Specification, within the zip file, specifies the test cases the the Whois Selftest Tool partially implements. It also contains the format specification that the Whois Selftest Tool implements.
In RST Whois Test Area Specification you can find references to other useful documents.
Whois Selftest Tool is distributed under the terms of This License.
- Ubuntu Linux version 12.04
- Perl, version 5.14 or higher
- Standard Perl libraries found on CPAN.org
- DateTime
- File::Slurp
- File::Which
- Net::IDN::Encode
- Net::IP
- Readonly
- Regexp::IPv6
- Test::Differences
- Test::Exception
- Test::MockObject
- Text::CSV
- Text::CSV_XS
- URI
- YAML::Syck
- wget
The Whois Selftest Tool has been developed on Unbuntu Linux and CentOS 7, but we have tried to avoid Linux specific coding. There is, however, no guarantee that it works on other OSs.
Clone the project repository and choose version according to the specification compatibility matrix. In the normal case, choose the latest version.
$> git clone https://github.com/dotse/Whois-Selftest-Tool.git <srcdir>
$> cd <srcdir>
$> git checkout <version>
Install Whois Selftest Tool scripts and libraries.
$> perl Build.PL
$> ./Build
$> ./Build test
$> ./Build install
To check the installation run the scripts with --help. Before the whois-test
script can be run, the EPP database must be fetched.
$> whois-fetch-epp-repo-ids --help
$> whois-fetch-epp-repo-ids
$> whois-test --help
After installing, you can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.
perldoc PDT::TS::Whois
Before you use the tool, make sure that you have read the documents listed in the reference above. Some error messages may be difficult to understand without referring to the RST Whois Test Area Specification document.
The Whois Selftest Tool provides the two commands whois-fetch-epp-repo-ids
and whois-test. If you have followed the installation above, always go to
your <programdir> and run the commands from there or else the scripts will
not be able to find its libraries in the PDT directory. You probably have to
prepend the commands with ./ just as in the instructions above.
whois-fetch-epp-repo-ids fetches the EPP Repository Identifiers registered
with IANA and stores them in a text file inside the user's home directory.
whois-test validates the Whois responses according to the format specification
in the RST Whois Test Area Specification document.
The database of EPP Repository Identifiers is a prerequisite for running
whois-test command, so whois-fetch-epp-repo-ids must be run at least once
before whois-test is used for the first time. After that, run
whois-fetch-epp-repo-ids again to update the database every time
the Whois Selfttest Tool is to be used.
The tool accepts the default "redact strings" as specified in the
RST Whois Test Area Specification document. If an additional redact string
is used, and be accepted by the tool, it has to be added to the redaction string
database. Use --redaction-db to point at the selected database. Run
whois-test --man to get full documentation.
See the man pages for the respective commands for details on how to run them.
Use the --man option to view the man pages.
- The description of the two types of replies on queries for nameserver objects is a bit unclear. For full understanding, please see Test Case WhoisCLI03 found in the RST Whois Test Area Specification document.
If you think you've found a bug, please search both the list of known issues and the Issue Tracker to see if this is a known bug. If you cannot find it, please report it to the issue tracker.