xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/whois/whois.1 (revision 230f8c40e55e3462e90151e30f61bd0fdd4dcda3)
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32.\"     @(#)whois.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
33.\"
34.Dd June 6, 1993
35.Dt WHOIS 1
36.Os BSD 4.3
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm whois
39.Nd Internet user name directory service
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.Nm whois
42.Op Fl h Ar hostname
43.Ar name ...
44.Sh DESCRIPTION
45.Nm Whois
46looks up records in the Network Information Center
47.Pq Tn NIC
48database.
49.Pp
50The options are as follows:
51.Bl -tag -width Ds
52.It Fl h
53Use the specified host instead of the default NIC (whois.internic.net).
54.El
55.Pp
56The operands specified to
57.Nm whois
58are concatenated together (separated by white-space) and presented to
59the
60.Nm whois
61server.
62.Pp
63The default action, unless directed otherwise with a special
64.Ar name ,
65is to do a very broad search, looking for matches to
66.Ar name
67in all types of records and most fields (name, nicknames, hostname, net
68address, etc.) in the database.
69For more information as to what
70.Ar name
71operands have special meaning, and how to guide the search, use
72the special name
73.Dq Ar help .
74.Sh SEE ALSO
75RFC 812: Nicname/Whois
76.Sh HISTORY
77The
78.Nm whois
79command appeared in
80.Bx 4.3 .
81