whois — look up a domain's registration record
SYNOPSIS
whois <domain>
DESCRIPTION
Queries a domain's RDAP record — the modern, structured successor to legacy WHOIS — over HTTPS via rdap.org (CORS-enabled), and prints the registrar, the key dates (registration, expiration, last update), the status flags, the name servers and the DNSSEC state.
HOW IT WORKS
RDAP (Registration Data Access Protocol) is the IETF standard that replaces the old text-based WHOIS with structured JSON over HTTPS. rdap.org redirects each query to the authoritative registry of the domain's TLD, so the data comes straight from the source; the command then extracts the useful fields.
USE CASES
- check when a domain expires, or when it was registered;
- find the registrar to contact about a domain;
- verify a domain's name servers or DNSSEC status after a migration;
- spot freshly registered domains, often a phishing signal.
NOTES
Personal contact details are usually redacted (GDPR). Query the registered domain (example.com), not a subdomain (www.example.com). A few ccTLDs do not offer RDAP yet.
EXAMPLES
whois toinel.com whois github.com