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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.\" From: @(#)whois.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93 33.\" $FreeBSD$ 34.\" 35.Dd December 15, 2001 36.Dt WHOIS 1 37.Os 38.Sh NAME 39.Nm whois 40.Nd "Internet domain name and network number directory service" 41.Sh SYNOPSIS 42.Nm 43.Op Fl aAdgilmQrR6 44.Op Fl c Ar country-code | Fl h Ar host 45.Op Fl p Ar port 46.Ar name ... 47.Sh DESCRIPTION 48The 49.Nm 50utility looks up records in the databases maintained by several 51Network Information Centers 52.Pq Tn NICs . 53.Pp 54The options are as follows: 55.Bl -tag -width indent 56.It Fl a 57Use the American Registry for Internet Numbers 58.Pq Tn ARIN 59database. 60It contains network numbers used in those parts of the world covered neither by 61.Tn APNIC 62nor by 63.Tn RIPE . 64.Pp 65(Hint: All point of contact handles in the 66.Tn ARIN 67whois database end with 68.Qq Li -ARIN . ) 69.Pp 70.It Fl A 71Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center 72.Pq Tn APNIC 73database. 74It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia, 75New Zealand, and the Pacific islands. 76.It Fl c Ar country-code 77This is the equivalent of using the 78.Fl h 79option with an argument of 80.Qq Ar country-code Ns Li .whois-servers.net . 81.It Fl d 82Use the US Department of Defense 83database. 84It contains points of contact for subdomains of 85.Pa .MIL . 86.It Fl g 87Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of 88contact for subdomains of 89.Pa .GOV . 90.It Fl h Ar host 91Use the specified host instead of the default variant. 92Either a host name or an IP address may be specified. 93.Pp 94By default 95.Nm 96constructs the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain 97.Pq Tn TLD 98of the supplied (single) argument, and appending 99.Qq Li .whois-servers.net . 100This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected 101automatically for a large number of 102.Tn TLDs . 103.Pp 104In the event that an IP 105address is specified, the whois server will default to the American 106Registry for Internet Numbers 107.Pq Tn ARIN . 108If a query to 109.Tn ARIN 110references 111.Tn APNIC , LACNIC , 112or 113.Tn RIPE , 114that server will be queried also, provided that the 115.Fl Q 116option is not specified. 117.Pp 118If the query is not a domain name or IP address, 119.Nm 120will fall back to 121.Pa whois.crsnic.net . 122.It Fl i 123Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers 124.Pq Pa whois.networksolutions.com 125database. 126It contains network numbers and domain contact information for most of 127.Pa .COM , .NET , .ORG 128and 129.Pa .EDU 130domains. 131.Pp 132.Sy NOTE ! 133The registration of these domains is now done by a number of 134independent and competing registrars and this database holds no information 135on the domains registered by organizations other than Network Solutions, Inc. 136Also, note that the 137.Tn InterNIC 138database 139.Pq Pa whois.internic.net 140is no longer handled by Network Solutions, Inc. 141For details, see 142.Pa http://www.internic.net/ . 143.Pp 144(Hint: Contact information, identified by the term 145.Em handle , 146can be looked up by prefixing 147.Qq Li "handle " 148to the 149.Tn NIC 150handle in the query.) 151.It Fl l 152Use the Latin American and Caribbean IP address Regional Registry 153.Pq Tn LACNIC 154database. 155It contains network numbers used in much of Latin America and the 156Caribbean. 157.It Fl m 158Use the Route Arbiter Database 159.Pq Tn RADB 160database. 161It contains route policy specifications for a large 162number of operators' networks. 163.It Fl p Ar port 164Connect to the whois server on 165.Ar port . 166If this option is not specified, 167.Nm 168defaults to port 43. 169.It Fl Q 170Do a quick lookup. 171This means that 172.Nm 173will not attempt to lookup the name in the authoritative whois 174server (if one is listed). 175This option has no effect when combined with any other options. 176.It Fl r 177Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens 178.Pq Tn RIPE 179database. 180It contains network numbers and domain contact information 181for Europe. 182.It Fl R 183Use the Russia Network Information Center 184.Pq Tn RIPN 185database. 186It contains network numbers and domain contact information 187for subdomains of 188.Pa .RU . 189This option is deprecated; use the 190.Fl c 191option with an argument of 192.Qq Li RU 193instead. 194.It Fl 6 195Use the IPv6 Resource Center 196.Pq Tn 6bone 197database. 198It contains network names and addresses for the IPv6 network. 199.El 200.Pp 201The operands specified to 202.Nm 203are treated independently and may be used 204as queries on different whois servers. 205.Sh EXAMPLES 206Most types of data, such as domain names and 207.Tn IP 208addresses, can be used as arguments to 209.Nm 210without any options, and 211.Nm 212will choose the correct whois server to query. 213Some exceptions, where 214.Nm 215will not be able to handle data correctly, are detailed below. 216.Pp 217To obtain contact information about an 218administrator located in the Russian 219.Tn TLD 220domain 221.Qq Li RU , 222use the 223.Fl c 224option as shown in the following example, where 225.Ar CONTACT-ID 226is substituted with the actual contact identifier. 227.Pp 228.Dl "whois -c RU CONTACT-ID" 229.Pp 230(Note: This example is specific to the 231.Tn TLD 232.Qq Li RU , 233but other 234.Tn TLDs 235can be queried by using a similar syntax.) 236.Pp 237The following example demonstrates how to obtain information about an 238.Tn IPv6 239address or hostname using the 240.Fl 6 241option, which directs the query to 242.Tn 6bone . 243.Pp 244.Dl "whois -6 IPv6-IP-Address" 245.Pp 246The following example demonstrates how to query 247a whois server using a non-standard port, where 248.Dq Li query-data 249is the query to be sent to 250.Dq Li whois.example.com 251on port 252.Dq Li rwhois 253(written numerically as 4321). 254.Pp 255.Dl "whois -h whois.example.com -p rwhois query-data" 256.Sh SEE ALSO 257.Rs 258.%A Ken Harrenstien 259.%A Vic White 260.%T NICNAME/WHOIS 261.%D 1 March 1982 262.%O RFC 812 263.Re 264.Sh HISTORY 265The 266.Nm 267command appeared in 268.Bx 4.3 . 269