How to whois new TLDs?

How can I look up new TLDs, such as .email, .guru, etc., using the whois command in linux?

Running whois on a new TLD only gives the response:

No whois server is known for this kind of object.

You can manually configure the whois servers for the new TLDs.

Just create the file /etc/whois.conf and add the following content and you will be able to look up the new TLDs:

whois.conf (Github Mirror: whois.conf)

The whois.conf is using regular expressions.

You can easily get the right whois server directly from IANA without editing additional files or tables.

Example for ".de" TLD

Linux, OSX (and compatible):

whois -h whois.iana.org .de |
  egrep -e '^whois:' |
  sed -e 's/[[:space:]][[:space:]]*/ /g' |
  cut -d " " -f 2

Have fun

Most whois clients hard-code the TLD whos servers, instead of actively retrieving the whois server from IANA when performing for a TLD that is not already known to the client.

I have built my own online whois lookup tool you can use http://gwhois.org/ that supports all TLDs and IP addresses since all lookups start at IANA and then traverse to the registry and registrar as needed.

I have also spent a lot of time building an intelligent whois parser that displays the whois data in a user-friendly manner.

Example screenshots: