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Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 13.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 14.\" without specific prior written permission. 15.\" 16.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 17.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 18.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 19.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 20.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 21.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 22.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 23.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 24.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 25.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 26.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 27.\" 28.\" From: @(#)whois.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93 29.\" $FreeBSD$ 30.\" 31.Dd January 23, 2016 32.Dt WHOIS 1 33.Os 34.Sh NAME 35.Nm whois 36.Nd "Internet domain name and network number directory service" 37.Sh SYNOPSIS 38.Nm 39.Op Fl aAbfgiIklmPQrRS 40.Op Fl c Ar country-code | Fl h Ar host 41.Op Fl p Ar port 42.Ar name ... 43.Sh DESCRIPTION 44The 45.Nm 46utility looks up records in the databases maintained by several 47Network Information Centers 48.Pq Tn NICs . 49.Pp 50By default 51.Nm 52starts by querying the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) whois server, 53and follows referrals to whois servers 54that have more specific details about the query 55.Ar name . 56The IANA whois server knows about 57IP address and AS numbers 58as well as domain names. 59.Pp 60There are a few special cases where referrals do not work, so 61.Nm 62goes directly to the appropriate server. 63These include point-of-contact handles for ARIN, 64.Pa nic.at , 65NORID, and RIPE, 66and domain names under 67.Pa ac.uk . 68.Pp 69The options are as follows: 70.Bl -tag -width indent 71.It Fl a 72Use the American Registry for Internet Numbers 73.Pq Tn ARIN 74database. 75It contains network numbers used in those parts of the world covered neither by 76.Tn APNIC , AfriNIC , LACNIC , 77nor by 78.Tn RIPE . 79The query syntax is documented at 80.Pa https://www.arin.net/resources/whoisrws/whois_api.html#nicname 81.It Fl A 82Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center 83.Pq Tn APNIC 84database. 85It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia, 86New Zealand, and the Pacific islands. 87Get query syntax documentation using 88.Ic whois -A help 89.It Fl b 90Use the Network Abuse Clearinghouse database. 91It contains addresses to which network abuse should be reported, 92indexed by domain name. 93.It Fl c Ar country-code 94This is the equivalent of using the 95.Fl h 96option with an argument of 97.Qq Ar country-code Ns Li .whois-servers.net . 98.It Fl f 99Use the African Network Information Centre 100.Pq Tn AfriNIC 101database. 102It contains network numbers used in Africa and the islands of the 103western Indian Ocean. 104Get query syntax documentation using 105.Ic whois -f help 106.It Fl g 107Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of 108contact for subdomains of 109.Pa .GOV . 110.It Fl h Ar host 111Use the specified host instead of the default. 112Either a host name or an IP address may be specified. 113.It Fl i 114Use the traditional Network Information Center (InterNIC) 115.Pq Pa whois.internic.net 116database. 117This now contains only registrations for domain names under 118.Pa .COM , 119.Pa .NET , 120.Pa .EDU . 121You can specify the type of object to search for like 122.Ic whois -i ' Ns Ar type Ar name Ns Ic ' 123where 124.Ar type 125can be 126.Nm domain , nameserver , registrar . 127The 128.Ar name 129can contain 130.Li * 131wildcards. 132.It Fl I 133Use the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority 134.Pq Tn IANA 135database. 136.It Fl k 137Use the National Internet Development Agency of Korea's 138.Pq Tn KRNIC 139database. 140It contains network numbers and domain contact information 141for Korea. 142.It Fl l 143Use the Latin American and Caribbean IP address Regional Registry 144.Pq Tn LACNIC 145database. 146It contains network numbers used in much of Latin America and the 147Caribbean. 148.It Fl m 149Use the Route Arbiter Database 150.Pq Tn RADB 151database. 152It contains route policy specifications for a large 153number of operators' networks. 154.It Fl p Ar port 155Connect to the whois server on 156.Ar port . 157If this option is not specified, 158.Nm 159defaults to port 43. 160.It Fl P 161Use the PeeringDB database of AS numbers. 162It contains details about presence at internet peering points 163for many network operators. 164.It Fl Q 165Do a quick lookup; 166.Nm 167will not attempt to follow referrals to other whois servers. 168This is the default if a server is explicitly specified 169using one of the other options or in an environment variable. 170See also the 171.Fl R 172option. 173.It Fl r 174Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens 175.Pq Tn RIPE 176database. 177It contains network numbers and domain contact information 178for Europe. 179Get query syntax documentation using 180.Ic whois -r help 181.It Fl R 182Do a recursive lookup; 183.Nm 184will attempt to follow referrals to other whois servers. 185This is the default if no server is explicitly specified. 186See also the 187.Fl Q 188option. 189.It Fl S 190By default 191.Nm 192adjusts simple queries (without spaces) to produce more useful output 193from certain whois servers, 194and it suppresses some uninformative output. 195With the 196.Fl S 197option, 198.Nm 199sends the query and prints the output verbatim. 200.El 201.Pp 202The operands specified to 203.Nm 204are treated independently and may be used 205as queries on different whois servers. 206.Sh ENVIRONMENT 207.Bl -tag 208.It Ev WHOIS_SERVER 209The primary default whois server. 210If this is unset, 211.Nm 212uses the 213.Ev RA_SERVER 214environment variable. 215.It Ev RA_SERVER 216The secondary default whois server. 217If this is unset, 218.Nm 219will use 220.Pa whois.iana.org . 221.El 222.Sh EXIT STATUS 223.Ex -std 224.Sh EXAMPLES 225To obtain contact information about an 226administrator located in the Russian 227.Tn TLD 228domain 229.Qq Li RU , 230use the 231.Fl c 232option as shown in the following example, where 233.Ar CONTACT-ID 234is substituted with the actual contact identifier. 235.Pp 236.Dl "whois -c RU CONTACT-ID" 237.Pp 238(Note: This example is specific to the 239.Tn TLD 240.Qq Li RU , 241but other 242.Tn TLDs 243can be queried by using a similar syntax.) 244.Pp 245The following example demonstrates how to query 246a whois server using a non-standard port, where 247.Dq Li query-data 248is the query to be sent to 249.Dq Li whois.example.com 250on port 251.Dq Li rwhois 252(written numerically as 4321). 253.Pp 254.Dl "whois -h whois.example.com -p rwhois query-data" 255.Sh SEE ALSO 256.Rs 257.%A Ken Harrenstien 258.%A Vic White 259.%T NICNAME/WHOIS 260.%D 1 March 1982 261.%O RFC 812 262.Re 263.Sh HISTORY 264The 265.Nm 266command appeared in 267.Bx 4.3 . 268