Generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) Registry Agreements

gTLD Registry Agreements establish the rights, duties, liabilities, and obligations ICANN requires of registry operators to run gTLDs.

Proposed Unsponsored TLD Agreement: Appendix P (.info)

ICANN | Proposed Unsponsored TLD Agreement: Appendix P (.info)

  ICANN Logo

Proposed Unsponsored TLD Agreement: Appendix P (.info)

Posted: 24 April 2001


Whois Provider Data Specification

Registry Operator will provide bulk access to up-to-date data concerning domain name and nameserver registrations maintained by Registry Operator in connection with the Registry TLD on a daily schedule, only for purposes of providing free public query-based access to up-to-date data concerning domain name and nameserver registrations in multiple TLDs, to a party designated from time to time in writing by ICANN (the "Designated Recipient").

The procedures for providing access, and the specification of the content and format of this data, will be as stated below, until changed according to the Registry Agreement. This Appendix is subject to change by agreement of Registry Operator and ICANN during the design process as well as during the IETF standards process. However, the following provides the target architecture and initial functionality.

A. Procedures for Providing Access

The Registry Operator will prepare (i) full data sets for one day of each week (the day to be designated by ICANN) and (ii) incremental data sets for all seven days of each week. Full and incremental data sets shall be up-to-date and coherent as of 12:00 UTC on the day to which they relate. Until a different day is designated by ICANN, the full data sets will be prepared for Sundays. (Note that on the ICANN-designated day both an incremental and a full data set are prepared.)

1. Preparation of Files Containing Data Sets. Each full and incremental data set consists of an XML document meeting the content and format requirements of Parts B and C of this document. Once the XML document is generated, the following preparation steps will be performed:

a. The XML document will be placed in a file names according to the following convention:

For full data sets: "wfYYMMDD" where "YYMMDD" is replaced with the date (YY=last two digits of year; MM=number of month; DD=day; in all cases a single-digit number should be left-padded with a zero).

For incremental data sets: "wiYYMMDD" where "YYMMDD" follows the same format.

b. The Registry Operator may optionally split the document using the Unix SPLIT command (or equivalent) to produce files no less than 1GB each (except the final file). If files are split, a .MD5 file (produced with MD5SUM or equivalent) must be included with the escrow files to isolate errors in case of transfer fault.

c. The file(s) will then be encrypted and signed using PGP, version 6.5.1 or above, with a key of DH/DSS type and 2048/1024-byte length. (Note that PGP compresses the escrow file in addition to encrypting it.) The Data Recipient's public key will be used for the encryption and the Registry Operator's private key will be used for the signature. Public keys will be exchanged between the Registry Operator and the Designated Recipient by physical delivery of floppy diskettes or other agreed means.

2. Transmission of Full Data Sets. Once prepared, full data sets will be provided either by the procedures for incremental data sets described in item A(3) below or, at the option of either the Registry Operator or the Designated Recipient, by writing the full data set to DAT tape (or other media mutually agreed by Registry Operator and the Designated Recipient) and sending it to the Designated Recipient by expedited delivery service (such as FedEx or DHL). If sent by expedited delivery service, the full data set will be scheduled for arrival no later than the second calendar day following the day to which the full backup relates.

3. Transmission of Incremental Data Sets. To permit the transmission of incremental data sets, the Registry Operator will make them available for download by the Designated Recipient by Internet file transfer protocol. Incremental data sets will be made available for download no later than 20:00 UTC on the day to which they relate.

B. Content

The data sets (whether full or incremental) will consist of four types of objects:

1. Domain objects. One type of object is the domain object, which corresponds to a single Registered Name. Each domain object includes the following data:

Domain ID
Domain Name
Sponsoring Registrar
Domain Status
Registrant, Administrative, Technical and Billing Contact Information including
      Contact ID
      Contact Name
      Contact Organization
      Contact Address, City, State/Province, Country
      Contact Postal Code
      Contact Phone, Fax, E-mail
Trademark Information including
      Trademark Name
      Registration Date
      Country of Registration
      Registration Number
Name Servers associated with this domain
Domain Registration Date
Domain Expiration Date
Domain Last Updated Date


















2. Nameserver objects. A second type of object is the nameserver object, which corresponds to a single registered nameserver. The nameserver object includes the following data:

Name Server ID
Name Server Host Name
Name Server IP Addresses if applicable
Current Registrar
Name Server Creation Date
Name Server Last Updated Date




3. Contact objects. A third type of object is the contact object, which corresponds to a single contact (whether registrant, administrative, technical or billing contact). The contact object includes the following data:

Contact ID
Contact Name
Contact Organization
Contact Address, City, State/Province, Country
Contact Postal Code
Contact Phone, Fax, E-mail




4. Registrar object. The final type of object corresponds to a single registrar. It includes the following data:

Registrar ID (conforming to the IANA registrar-ids registry)
Contact ID of Registrar
Registrar Administrative Contacts
Registrar Technical Contacts
Registrar Billing Contacts
Registrar URL
Registrar Creation Date
Registrar Last Updated Date






5. Objects Contained in Full and Incremental Data Sets. Full data sets include one domain object for each Registered Name within the Registry TLD; and nameserver, contact, and registrar objects for each nameserver, contact, and registrar referred to in any domain object. Incremental data sets consist of (a) those of the objects constituting a full data set that have been added or updated since the last incremental data set and (b) notations of deletion of any objects since the last incremental data set.

C. Format

Full and incremental data sets will be XML version 1.0, UTF-8 encoded documents conforming to the following document type definition:



<!DOCTYPE whois-data [

<!ELEMENT whois-data (domain*, del-domain*, nameserver*, del-nameserver*, contact*, del-contact*, registrar*, del-registrar*) >

<!-- del-domain, del-nameserver, del-contact, and del-registrar child elements are only meaningful where the attribute type="Full" | "Incremental" -->

<!ATTLIST whois-data
     tld NMTOKEN #FIXED "info"
     date CDATA #REQUIRED
     type (Full | Incremental)
     version CDATA #FIXED "1.0" >



<!ELEMENT domain (name, tm)>
<!ATTLIST domain
     dom-id ID #REQUIRED
     registrar-id IDREF #REQUIRED
     registrant-id IDREF #REQUIRED
     admin-id IDREF #REQUIRED
     tech-id IDREF #REQUIRED
     billing-id IDREF #REQUIRED
     nameserver-id IDREFS #IMPLIED
     status (NEW | ACTIVE | INACTIVE | HOLD | LOCK | CLIENT-HOLD | CLIENT-LOCK | PENDING-TRANSFER | PENDING-DELETE)
     cre-date CDATA #REQUIRED
     exp-date CDATA #REQUIRED
     upd-date CDATA #REQUIRED>











<!ELEMENT del-domain EMPTY >

<!-the presence of this element in an incremental data set indicates that the domain has been deleted since the last incremental data set -->

<!ATTLIST del-domain
     dom-id ID #REQUIRED >

<!ELEMENT nameserver (name, ip, ip+) >
<!ATTLIST nameserver
     nameserver-id ID #REQUIRED
     registrar-id IDREF #REQUIRED
     cre-date CDATA #REQUIRED
     upd-date CDATA #REQUIRED>




<!ELEMENT del-nameserver EMPTY >

<!-the presence of this element in an incremental data set indicates that the nameserver has been deleted since the last incremental data set -->

<!ATTLIST del-nameserver
     nameserver-id ID #REQUIRED >

<!ELEMENT contact (name, org, address, post-code, country, phone, fax-, e-mail) >
<!ATTLIST contact
     contact-id ID #REQUIRED
     registrar-id IDREF #REQUIRED
     cre-date CDATA #REQUIRED
     upd-date CDATA #REQUIRED>




<!ELEMENT del-contact EMPTY >

<!-the presence of this element in an incremental data set indicates that the contact has been deleted since the last incremental data set -->

<!ATTLIST del-contact
     contact-id ID #REQUIRED >

<!ELEMENT registrar (reg-status, url) >
<!ATTLIST registrar
     registrar-id ID #REQUIRED
     contact-id IDREF #REQUIRED
     admin-id IDREFS #REQUIRED
     tech-id IDREFS #REQUIRED
     billing-id IDREFS #REQUIRED
     cre-date CDATA #REQUIRED
     upd-date CDATA #REQUIRED>







<!ELEMENT del-registrar EMPTY >

<!-the presence of this element in an incremental data set indicates that the registrar has been deleted since the last incremental data set -->

<!ATTLIST del-registrar
     registrar-id ID #REQUIRED >

<!ELEMENT name (#PCDATA) >
<!ELEMENT tm (name, date, number, country) >
<!ELEMENT ip (#PCDATA) >
<!ELEMENT org (#PCDATA) >
<!ELEMENT address (#PCDATA) >
<!ELEMENT post-code (#PCDATA) >




<!ELEMENT country EMPTY >
<!ATTLIST country cc (AF | AL | DZ | AS | AD | AO | AI | AQ | AG | AR | AM | AW | AU | AT | AZ | BS | BH | BD | BB | BY | BE | BZ | BJ | BM | BT | BO | BA | BW | BV | BR | IO | BN | BG | BF | BI | KH | CM | CA | CV | KY | CF | TD | CL | CN | CX | CC | CO | KM | CG | CD | CK | CR | CI | HR | CU | CY | CZ | DK | DJ | DM | DO | TP | EC | EG | SV | GQ | ER | EE | ET | FK | FO | FJ | FI | FR | GF | PF | TF | GA | GM | GE | DE | GH | GI | GR | GL | GD | GP | GU | GT | GN | GW | GY | HT | HM | VA | HN | HK | HU | IS | IN | ID | IR | IQ | IE | IL | IT | JM | JP | JO | KZ | KE | KI | KP | KR | KW | KG | LA | LV | LB | LS | LR | LY | LI | LT | LU | MO | MK | MG | MW | MY | MV | ML | MT | MH | MQ | MR | MU | YT | MX | FM | MD | MC | MN | MS | MA | MZ | MM | NA | NR | NP | NL | AN | NC | NZ | NI | NE | NG | NU | NF | MP | NO | OM | PK | PW | PS | PA | PG | PY | PE | PH | PN | PL | PT | PR | QA | RE | RO | RU | RW | SH | KN | LC | PM | VC | WS | SM | ST | SA | SN | SC | SL | SG | SK | SI | SB | SO | ZA | GS | ES | LK | SD | SR | SJ | SZ | SE | CH | SY | TW | TJ | TZ | TH | TG | TK | TO | TT | TN | TR | TM | TC | TV | UG | UA | AE | GB | US | UM | UY | UZ | VU | VE | VN | VG | VI | WF | EH | YE | YU | ZM | ZW | AC | GG | IM | JE | UK ) >

<!ELEMENT phone (#PCDATA) >
<!ELEMENT fax (#PCDATA) >
<!ELEMENT e-mail (#PCDATA) >
<!ELEMENT reg-status (#PCDATA) >
<!ELEMENT url (#PCDATA) >
<!ELEMENT date (#PCDATA) >
<!ELEMENT number (#PCDATA) >
]>







Comments concerning the layout, construction and functionality of this site
should be sent to webmaster@icann.org.

Page Updated 24-April-2001

(c) 2001  The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. All rights reserved.