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 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 aAdgimQrR6 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 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.Pp 152.It Fl m 153Use the Route Arbiter Database 154.Pq Tn RADB 155database. 156It contains route policy specifications for a large 157number of operators' networks. 158.It Fl p Ar port 159Connect to the whois server on 160.Ar port . 161If this option is not specified, 162.Nm 163defaults to port 43. 164.It Fl Q 165Do a quick lookup. 166This means that 167.Nm 168will not attempt to lookup the name in the authoritative whois 169server (if one is listed). 170This option has no effect when combined with any other options. 171.It Fl r 172Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens 173.Pq Tn RIPE 174database. 175It contains network numbers and domain contact information 176for Europe. 177.It Fl R 178Use the Russia Network Information Center 179.Pq Tn RIPN 180database. 181It contains network numbers and domain contact information 182for subdomains of 183.Pa .RU . 184This option is deprecated; use the 185.Fl c 186option with an argument of 187.Qq Li RU 188instead. 189.It Fl 6 190Use the IPv6 Resource Center 191.Pq Tn 6bone 192database. 193It contains network names and addresses for the IPv6 network. 194.El 195.Pp 196The operands specified to 197.Nm 198are treated independently and may be used 199as queries on different whois servers. 200.Sh EXAMPLES 201Most types of data, such as domain names and 202.Tn IP 203addresses, can be used as arguments to 204.Nm 205without any options, and 206.Nm 207will choose the correct whois server to query. 208Some exceptions, where 209.Nm 210will not be able to handle data correctly, are detailed below. 211.Pp 212To obtain contact information about an 213administrator located in the Russian 214.Tn TLD 215domain 216.Qq Li RU , 217use the 218.Fl c 219option as shown in the following example, where 220.Ar CONTACT-ID 221is substituted with the actual contact identifier. 222.Pp 223.Dl "whois -c RU CONTACT-ID" 224.Pp 225(Note: This example is specific to the 226.Tn TLD 227.Qq Li RU , 228but other 229.Tn TLDs 230can be queried by using a similar syntax.) 231.Pp 232The following example demonstrates how to obtain information about an 233.Tn IPv6 234address or hostname using the 235.Fl 6 236option, which directs the query to 237.Tn 6bone . 238.Pp 239.Dl "whois -6 IPv6-IP-Address" 240.Pp 241The following example demonstrates how to query 242a whois server using a non-standard port, where 243.Dq Li query-data 244is the query to be sent to 245.Dq Li whois.example.com 246on port 247.Dq Li rwhois 248(written numerically as 4321). 249.Pp 250.Dl "whois -h whois.example.com -p rwhois query-data" 251.Sh SEE ALSO 252.Rs 253.%A Ken Harrenstien 254.%A Vic White 255.%T NICNAME/WHOIS 256.%D 1 March 1982 257.%O RFC 812 258.Re 259.Sh HISTORY 260The 261.Nm 262command appeared in 263.Bx 4.3 . 264