Because there are now more than one domain registration service (DRS), a "whois" query on a domain name just tells you who registered the domain. So you have to do an initial query of:

$ whois myspecialicon.com

and then, once you know the whois server to use, do:

$ whois myspecialicon.com@whois.corenic.net

so it's become a two-step process, which is okay, but it annoys old fogeys like me who are used to being able to find out "whois" info with a single command.

Perl to the rescue! Enter this line into your .bashrc:

function xwhois { whois $1 | perl -le 'while (<>) { chomp; /Whois Server: (\S+)/i && ($server = $1); print; } if ($server) { open(FD, "whois '$1'\@$server|"); while (<FD>) { chomp; print; } }' }

Then you can do it all in one step:

$ xwhois myspecialicon.com

HOORAY POKEY YOU DID IT! CHEESE FOR EVERYONE!