Bug#733833: libnet-xwhois-perl: Returns no status for domains under some top-level domains

[Axel Beckert]

Package: libnet-xwhois-perl
Version: 0.90-4
Severity: normal
Tags: upstream
Forwarded: https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=Net-XWhois

While testing before uploading libnet-xwhois-perl, I noticed that
Net::XWhois doesn't report the status of a domain properly for some
top-level domains while it works for others.

Taking the examples from the man page:

$ perl -MNet::XWhois -MData::Dumper -le 'print Dumper [Net::XWhois->new(Domain => "bit.ch")->status]'
$VAR1 = [
          undef
        ];
$ perl -MNet::XWhois -MData::Dumper -le 'print Dumper [Net::XWhois->new(Domain => "vipul.net")->status]'
$VAR1 = [
          'clientTransferProhibited',
          'clientUpdateProhibited',
          'clientRenewProhibited',
          'clientDeleteProhibited'
        ];

I've tested some more domains and it seems to me, that for second-level
domains under .org, .de, .at, and .ch the status method return either an
empty array or an array with undef as sole element.

It seems to work fine for .net and .fr.

For .com, it seems to incorrectly parse the returned data:

$ perl -MNet::XWhois -MData::Dumper -le 'print Dumper [Net::XWhois->new(Domain => "intel.com")->status]'
$VAR1 = [
          'Registry Registrant ID:'
        ];

According to
https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=Net-XWhois there are
quite some top-level domains where the whois servers changed compared to
what is included in Net::XWhois. But all patches in upstream's bug
tracking system seem to be either 5 or 8 years old and need to be
checked before applied to the Debian package.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: jessie/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (990, 'unstable'), (900, 'testing'), (899, 'testing-proposed-updates'), (600, 'stable'), (500, 'proposed-updates'), (200, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 3.12-trunk-686-pae (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_DK.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_DK.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages libnet-xwhois-perl depends on:
ii  perl  5.18.1-5

libnet-xwhois-perl recommends no packages.

libnet-xwhois-perl suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information