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.\" From: @(#)whois.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93 33.\" $FreeBSD$ 34.\" 35.Dd November 17, 1999 36.Dt WHOIS 1 37.Os BSD 4.3 38.Sh NAME 39.Nm whois 40.Nd Internet domain name and network number directory service 41.Sh SYNOPSIS 42.Nm whois 43.Op Fl adgimpQrR6 44.Op Fl h Ar host 45.Ar name ... 46.Sh DESCRIPTION 47.Nm Whois 48looks up records in the databases maintained by several 49Network Information Centers 50.Pq Tn NICs . 51.Pp 52The options are as follows: 53.Bl -tag -width Ds 54.It Fl a 55Use the American Registry for Internet Numbers 56.Pq Tn ARIN 57database. It contains network numbers used in those parts of the world 58covered neither by 59.Tn APNIC nor by 60.Tn RIPE . 61.It Fl d 62Use the US Department of Defense 63database. It contains points of contact for subdomains of 64.Tn \&.MIL . 65.It Fl g 66Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of 67contact for subdomains of 68.Tn \&.GOV . 69.It Fl h Ar host 70Use the specified host instead of the default variant. 71Either a host name or an IP address may be specified. 72.Pp 73By default 74.Nm 75construct the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain 76.Pq Tn TLD 77of the supplied (single) argument, and appending ".whois-servers.net". 78This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected 79automatically for a large number of TLDs. 80If no required whois-servers.net subdomain found, fallback 81to whois.crsnic.net provided. 82.It Fl i 83Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers 84.Pq Tn whois.networksolutions.com 85database. It contains network numbers and domain contact information 86for most of 87.Tn \&.COM , 88.Tn \&.NET , 89.Tn \&.ORG 90and 91.Tn \&.EDU 92domains. NOTE! The registration of these doamins is now done by a number of 93independent and competing registrars and this database holds no information 94on the domains registered by organizations other than Network Solutions, Inc. 95Also, note that the InterNIC database 96.Pq Tn whois.internic.net 97is no longer handled by Network Solutions, Inc. For details, see: 98http://www.internic.net/. 99.It Fl m 100Use the Route Arbiter Database 101.Pq Tn RADB 102database. It contains route policy specifications for a large 103number of operators' networks. 104.It Fl p 105Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center 106.Pq Tn APNIC 107database. It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia, 108New Zealand, and the Pacific islands. 109.It Fl Q 110Do a quick lookup. This means that 111.Nm 112will not attempt to lookup the name in the authoratative whois 113server (if one is listed) nor will it contact InterNic if a lookup 114fails. This flag has no effect when combined with any other flag. 115.It Fl r 116Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens 117.Pq Tn RIPE 118database. It contains network numbers and domain contact information 119for Europe. 120.It Fl R 121Use the Russia Network Information Center 122.Pq Tn RIPN 123database. It contains network numbers and domain contact information 124for subdomains of 125.Tn \&.RU . 126.It Fl 6 127Use the IPv6 Resource Center 128.Pq Tn 6bone 129database. It contains network names and addresses for the IPv6 network. 130.El 131.Pp 132The operands specified to 133.Nm 134are concatenated together (separated by white-space) and presented to 135the 136.Nm 137server. 138.Pp 139The default action, unless directed otherwise with a special 140.Ar name , 141is to do a very broad search, looking for matches to 142.Ar name 143in all types of records and most fields (name, nicknames, hostname, net 144address, etc.) in the database. 145For more information as to what 146.Ar name 147operands have special meaning, and how to guide the search, use 148the special name 149.Dq Ar help . 150.Sh SEE ALSO 151.Rs 152.%A Ken Harrenstien 153.%A Vic White 154.%T NICNAME/WHOIS 155.%D 1 March 1982 156.%O RFC 812 157.Re 158.Sh HISTORY 159The 160.Nm 161command appeared in 162.Bx 4.3 . 163