namecoin whois server

[lebish]

I just finished up a rough whois server for Namecoin that needs some testing. It's at whois.namecoin.us and is available with any standard whois client.

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$ whois -h whois.namecoin.us example.bit

    Namecoin.us Whois Server v0.02

NOTICE: Access to .BIT WHOIS information is provided to assist persons in
determining the contents of a domain name registration record in the Namecoin
registry database. The data in this record is provided by http://namecoin.us/
for informational purposes only, and http://namecoin.us/ does not guarantee its
accuracy.  This service is intended only for query-based access.  You agree
that you will use this data only for lawful purposes and that, under no
circumstances will you use this data to: (a) allow, enable, or otherwise
support the transmission by e-mail, telephone, or facsimile of mass
unsolicited, commercial advertising or solicitations to entities other than
the data recipient's own existing customers; or (b) enable high volume,
automated, electronic processes that send queries or data to the systems of
http://namecoin.us/ reserves the right to modify these terms at any
time. By submitting this query, you agree to abide by this policy.

    Domain:  example.bit
    TxID:    cc828764f65a679440fa2421caa6df7283672d49f72808df1a99c68f08271ccc
    Expires: Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:17:14 -0400
    Value:
             (
                 [map] =>         (
                         [_empty_] => 208.116.53.211
                     )

             )


The Registry database contains ONLY .BIT domains and Registrars.

Let me know how it goes!

[moa]

Neat. Seems to work here.

So what are possible outputs for the "value" field?

A name that has given just 'WHATEVER' in the <value> field should just return

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    Value:
             (invalid)

right?

[lebish]

Glad to hear it worked!

So what are possible outputs for the "value" field?

A name that has given just 'WHATEVER' in the <value> field should just return

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    Value:
             (invalid)

right?

Correct-ish.

If you get an (invalid) result that means that the data was in no-way useable by the system. At least in a way it knows how.

If you get an (error) result that means it parsed the data fine, but something in it was wrong to the point where it discarded the entire entry.

If you get either of these and you believe you have a valid value in your domain's registration, please tell me so I can fix it!

[gsan]

I think we can use a specific field to define the whois data. There was some discussion about this on the IRC, around an "info" JSON object. Looks like it's being used even now, just look for the "info" fields in your name_scan.

The specification remains to be filled: http://dot-bit.org/Domain_names#Whois . There are also other fields in the proposal that could be served in a whois response (like "loc" and "email"). An additional fact is, "info" can be defined anywhere in the hierarchy (e.g. http://www.example.bit can also have an "info" field), but I don't know if this can be served by a whois server...

[lebish]

I think we can use a specific field to define the whois data. There was some discussion about this on the IRC, around an "info" JSON object. Looks like it's being used even now, just look for the "info" fields in your name_scan.

The specification remains to be filled: http://dot-bit.org/Domain_names#Whois . There are also other fields in the proposal that could be served in a whois response (like "loc" and "email"). An additional fact is, "info" can be defined anywhere in the hierarchy (e.g. http://www.example.bit can also have an "info" field), but I don't know if this can be served by a whois server...

There's a lot of information that could be included for sure. Are there any domains you can point me at that have implemented a more full set of fields? I'm going to try to add loc, email, and info to one of my domains and start playing around.

My hesitation with the "info" field is that it seems to be wildly unstandardized.

info{ name, email, url, ... }

or maybe even...

info { admin{name,email,url}, tech{name,email,url}, }

for multiple people. Anyone want to help come up with a spec for this?

[khal]

Are there any domains you can point me at that have implemented a more full set of fields? I'm going to try to add loc, email, and info to one of my domains and start playing around.

Here is an example with 'info' and 'email' that doesn't use the new hierarchy :
./namecoind name_scan "d/deepbit" 1

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[
    {
        "name" : "d/deepbit",
        "value" : "{\"map\":{\"\":{\"ns\":[\"ns0.web-sweet-web.net\",\"ns1.web-sweet-web.net\"],\"info\":{\"registrar\":\"http://register.dot-bit.org\"},\"email\":\"tycho@deepbit.net\"}}}",
        "txid" : "69f029a9a501f7e6d6d4faf7fec1c3cec296e732d56a1f6e5df0ebf67f80d26b",
        "expires_in" : 11759
    }
]

[gsan]

I'm going to try to add loc, email, and info to one of my domains and start playing around.

My hesitation with the "info" field is that it seems to be wildly unstandardized.

info{ name, email, url, ... }

or maybe even...

info { admin{name,email,url}, tech{name,email,url}, }

for multiple people. Anyone want to help come up with a spec for this?

There isn't too much going on in the sense of comments/requests to the specification draft, so the progress is rather slow.

khal and I did some prior conversations about this and taking the space limit and standardization concerns into account, I think a flat name->value system without further hierarchy would suffice. Whois servers could parse and display this easily and domain owners could add whatever info they need (postal address, jabber account, mobile number, etc.).

On the other hand, as khal has pointed out, standard names like "registrar" would be beneficial for automated queries. The current standard Whois categories look like:

• registrar
• registrant
• technical
• administrative
• billing (we can safely ignore this)

I'm proposing that all entries should be assumed to belong to the registrant and have simple string entries for "registrar", "tech" and "admin" contact info.

There is a further issue about the "email" entry, that is, whether we should move it to info. I think it can stay where it is, since it's more of a requirement of the name service (responsible person/authority e-mail) rather than whois. A second email can be supplied in the "info" entry as the owner/registrant contact.

Here is an example with 'info' and 'email' that doesn't use the new hierarchy :

The new hierarchy meaning, the relocation of the empty ("") map entry to the root (besides the modification about sub-sub-domains and delegation), which isn't settled yet. Hopefully this will make it cleaner. Though, it seems to me that we are going to keep the "" entry for compatibility reasons for a long time, maybe indefinitely, so the current approach is, root overrides "". How does this sound?

[lebish]

I see no reason we can't hash this out in chat and put together a RFC of sorts.

There's a lot of progress already done on other projects to include various bits of information in DNS, so my feeling is that we should stick close to the records that exist (like using SRV records for GPG fingerprints).

--

On a side note, I've been doing a lot of work on the whois server. It supports the latest draft revision of the specs. So things like info and email are now displayed if at the root level. Also, I've cleaned up the display of value to be a bit more human friendly.

Code: Select all

    Namecoin.us Whois Server v0.14

NOTICE: Access to .BIT WHOIS information is provided to assist persons in
determining the contents of a domain name registration record in the Namecoin
registry database. The data in this record is provided by http://namecoin.us/
for informational purposes only, and http://namecoin.us/ does not guarantee its
accuracy.  This service is intended only for query-based access.  You agree
that you will use this data only for lawful purposes and that, under no
circumstances will you use this data to: (a) allow, enable, or otherwise
support the transmission by e-mail, telephone, or facsimile of mass
unsolicited, commercial advertising or solicitations to entities other than
the data recipient's own existing customers; or (b) enable high volume,
automated, electronic processes that send queries or data to the systems.
http://namecoin.us/ reserves the right to modify these terms at any
time. By submitting this query, you agree to abide by this policy.

    Domain:  example.bit
    TxID:    9a25025f8006a347f91c3712c6678a6af4b378a824e17ff9f635db258b7d720d
    Expires: Sun, 28 Aug 2011 04:00:22 -0400

    E-Mail:  contact@namecoin.us
    Info:    http://www.namecoin.us/

    Value:
             map: 
               _empty_: 208.116.53.211
             email: contact@namecoin.us
             info: http://www.namecoin.us/

The Registry database contains ONLY .BIT domains and Registrars.

As always, you can use a command line whois tool pointed at whois.namecoin.us or use the web-based version here: http://www.namecoin.us/tools/whois-lookup.php