A large problem is that you seem to be assuming that:

• A. Everyone you do a whois on is going to be registered with Network Solutions
• B. Network Solutions will never change their format.

Both are dangerous assumptions: I would definitely look at Net::Whois as mentioned above. It was made for this sort of thing.

Nonetheless, here is a quick fix of the code above. Not the best, but a little more readable.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
my ($DNS,$registrant,$admin,$tech,$billing,$domain_name,$expires);

while (<>) {
  /^   ([\S]+)\s+[\d.]+/ and $DNS.="$1\n" and next;
  s/^\s+//;
  next unless length;
  m#Registrant:#             .. m#\)# and chomp($registrant=$_) and ne
+xt;
  m#Administrative Contact:# .. m#\)# and chomp($admin=$_)      and ne
+xt;
  m#Technical Contact:#      .. m#\)# and chomp($tech=$_)       and ne
+xt;
  m#Billing Contact:#        .. m#\)# and chomp($billing=$_)    and ne
+xt;

  /Domain Name:\s+([\w.]+)/     and $domain_name=$1 and next;
  /Record expires on\s+([^.]+)/ and $expires=$1     and next;
}

write STDOUT;


format STDOUT =
======================================================================
+==========
@<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
$domain_name
Registrant: @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
+<<<<<<<
$registrant
Admin:      @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
+<<<<<<<
$admin
Tech:       @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
+<<<<<<<
$tech
Billing:    @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
+<<<<<<<
$billing
DNS:        ^<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
+<<<<<<<
$DNS
EXPIRES:    @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
+<<<<<<<
$expires
.
[download]

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