1.\" Copyright (c) 1985, 1990, 1993 2.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 6.\" are met: 7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 8.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 11.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 12.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software 13.\" must display the following acknowledgement: 14.\" This product includes software developed by the University of 15.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. 16.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 17.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 18.\" without specific prior written permission. 19.\" 20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 23.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 24.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 26.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 30.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 31.\" 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