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Andy Newton edited this page Jan 24, 2025 · 3 revisions

The rdap Command

The rdap command is a full-featured, command-line interface (CLI) client for RDAP. It supports RDAP bootstrapping, caching, different output formats, and many more features.

Example RDAP Command

Basic Queries

  • Domain: rdap example.com
  • TLD: rdap .com
  • IP Address: rdap 192.0.2.1
  • CIDR: rdap 10/8
  • ASN: rdap as64496
  • URL: rdap https://rdap.iana.org/domain/com

Command Help

  • brief: rdap -h
  • extended: rdap --help

Installation

See these installation instructions.

Exit Codes

Here's a summary of the rdap command exit codes, based on error.rs:

Exit Code Description Category
0 Success Success
10 termimad error Internal Error
11 minus error Internal Error
40 I/O error I/O Error
42 Client error (within RdapClient) I/O Error (rdap client)
43 I/O error (within RdapClient) I/O Error (rdap client)
60 Response error (within RdapClient) RDAP Server Error
62 Parsing error (within RdapClient) RDAP Server Error
63 JSON error (within RdapClient) RDAP Server Error
70 Bootstrap unavailable (within RdapClient) Bootstrap Error
71 Bootstrap error (within RdapClient) Bootstrap Error
72 IANA response error (within RdapClient) Bootstrap Error
100 JSON error RDAP Error
101 IANA error RDAP Error
102 Invalid bootstrap file RDAP Error
103 Bootstrap not found RDAP Error
104 No registrar found RDAP Error
105 No registry found RDAP Error
200 Unknown output type User Error
201 Error on checks User Error
202 Invalid query value (within RdapClient) User Error
203 Ambiguous query type (within RdapClient) User Error
204 Domain name error (within RdapClient) User Error
250 Poison error (internal to rdap client) Internal Error

Paging Output

The client has a built-in (embedded) pager. Use of this pager is controlled via the RDAP_PAGING environment variable and the -P command argument.

It takes three values:

  • "embedded" - use the built-in pager
  • "auto" - use the built-in pager if the program is being run from a terminal
  • "none" - use no paging

For example, -P embedded will default to using the built-in pager.

By default, the client will not use a pager.

When set to "auto", the client determines if a pager is appropriate. This is done by attempting to determine if the terminal is interactive or not. If the terminal is not interactive, paging will be turned off otherwise it will be on.

Output Format

By default, the client will attempt to determine the output format of the information. If it determines the shell is interactive, output will be in rendered-markdown. Otherwise, the output will be JSON.

You can explicitly control this behavior using the -O command argument or the RDAP_OUTPUT environment variable (see below).

Directing Queries To A Specific Server

By default, the client will use the RDAP bootstrap files provided by IANA to determine the authoritative server for the information being requested. These IANA files have the "base URLs" for the RDAP servers. This is a process known as "bootstrapping".

You can override this behavior by either specifying a base "object tag" from the IANA object tags registry or with an explicit URL (e.g. rdap https://foo.example/ip/10.0.0.0).

An object tag can be specified with the -b command argument or the RDAP_BASE environment variable (see below). For example, -b arin will direct the client to find the ARIN server in the RDAP object tag registry.

An explicit base URL can be specified using the -B command or the RDAP_BASE_URL environment variable.

Two additional arguments are provided to assist with bootstrapping:

  • --tld-lookup - Specifies where to send queries for TLDs such as ".com". This defaults to IANA.
  • --inr-backup-bootstrap - Specifies where to send queries for IP addresses and ASNs should normal bootstrapping not yield an answer. This defaults to ARIN.

Caching

By default, the client will cache data based on the request URL and "self" links provided in the RDAP results.

This can be turned off with the -N command parameter or by setting the RDAP_NO_CACHE environment variable to "true".

The --max-cache-age argument controls the maximum amount of time items are left in the cache.

Logging

The client logs errors, warning, and other information on its processing. This can be controlled with the --log-level command argument or the RDAP_LOG environment variable.

Secure Connections

By default, the client will use secure connections. The following arguments and environment variables can be used to modify this behavior:

  • -T or RDAP_ALLOW_HTTP : RDAP servers should be using HTTPS. When given or set to true, HTTP will be allowed.
  • -K or RDAP_ALLOW_INVALID_HOST_NAMES : Allows HTTPS connections in which the host name does not match the certificate.
  • -I or RDAP_ALLOW_INVALID_CERTIFICATES : Allows HTTPS connections in which the TLS certificate is invalid.

Retries and Timeouts

By default, the client will retry queries if given an HTTP 429 response. The following arguments and environmental variables can be used to modify this behavior:

  • --max-retries or RDAP_MAX_RETRIES: Number of retries to attempt. Default is 1.
  • --max-retry-secs or RDAP_MAX_RETRY_SECS: Maximum number of seconds to wait before a retry if the retry-after value is greater.
  • --def-retry-secs or RDAP_DEF_RETRY_SECS: Default number of seconds to wait before a retry if no retry-after value is provided by the server.

The --timeout-secs argument determines the total time the client will wait for an answer.

Conformance Checks

Some specification conformance checks are done by this client. Each conformance check is assigned a number. These numerical values may be found here. Additionally, each check is classified into one of the following classes:

  • Informational
  • Specification Note
  • Standards Warning
  • Standards Error
  • Cidr0 Extension Error
  • ICANN Extension Error

The --error-on-checks argument will cause the client to exit with a non-zero exit code (see above) if one of these errors is detected. This may be useful for certain scripting purposes.

The --check-type argument may be used to specify which types of checks will be evaluating when the --error-on-checks argument causes a non-zero exit code.

Configuration

Configuration of this program may be set using environment variables or using an environment variables configuration file in the configuration directory of this program. An example is automatically written to the configuration directory. This configuraiton file may be customized by uncommenting out the provided environment variable settings.

The location of the configuration file is platform dependent.

On Linux, this file is located at $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/rdap/rdap.env or $HOME/.config/rdap/rdap.env.

On macOS, this file is located at $HOME/Library/Application Support/rdap/rdap.env.

On Windows, this file is located at {FOLDERID_RoamingAppData}\rdap\config\rdap.env.

Resetting

Use the --reset argument to reset all client state. This will remove the RDAP and IANA caches and reset the rdap.env file (see above) to the default.

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