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. 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.\" 30.Dd August 1, 2019 31.Dt WHOIS 1 32.Os 33.Sh NAME 34.Nm whois 35.Nd "Internet domain name and network number directory service" 36.Sh SYNOPSIS 37.Nm 38.Op Fl aAbfgiIklmPQrRS 39.Op Fl c Ar TLD | Fl h Ar host 40.Op Fl p Ar port 41.Op Fl - 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 TLD 94This is the equivalent of using the 95.Fl h 96option with an argument of 97.Qq Ar TLD Ns Li .whois-servers.net . 98This can be helpful for locating country-class TLD whois servers. 99.It Fl f 100Use the African Network Information Centre 101.Pq Tn AfriNIC 102database. 103It contains network numbers used in Africa and the islands of the 104western Indian Ocean. 105Get query syntax documentation using 106.Ic whois -f help 107.It Fl g 108Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of 109contact for subdomains of 110.Pa .GOV . 111.It Fl h Ar host 112Use the specified host instead of the default. 113Either a host name or an IP address may be specified. 114.It Fl i 115Use the traditional Network Information Center (InterNIC) 116.Pq Pa whois.internic.net 117database. 118This now contains only registrations for domain names under 119.Pa .COM , 120.Pa .NET , 121.Pa .EDU . 122You can specify the type of object to search for like 123.Ic whois -i ' Ns Ar type Ar name Ns Ic ' 124where 125.Ar type 126can be 127.Nm domain , nameserver , registrar . 128The 129.Ar name 130can contain 131.Li * 132wildcards. 133.It Fl I 134Use the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority 135.Pq Tn IANA 136database. 137.It Fl k 138Use the National Internet Development Agency of Korea's 139.Pq Tn KRNIC 140database. 141It contains network numbers and domain contact information 142for Korea. 143.It Fl l 144Use the Latin American and Caribbean IP address Regional Registry 145.Pq Tn LACNIC 146database. 147It contains network numbers used in much of Latin America and the 148Caribbean. 149.It Fl m 150Use the Route Arbiter Database 151.Pq Tn RADB 152database. 153It contains route policy specifications for a large 154number of operators' networks. 155.It Fl p Ar port 156Connect to the whois server on 157.Ar port . 158If this option is not specified, 159.Nm 160defaults to port 43. 161.It Fl P 162Use the PeeringDB database of AS numbers. 163It contains details about presence at internet peering points 164for many network operators. 165.It Fl Q 166Do a quick lookup; 167.Nm 168will not attempt to follow referrals to other whois servers. 169This is the default if a server is explicitly specified 170using one of the other options or in an environment variable. 171See also the 172.Fl R 173option. 174.It Fl r 175Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens 176.Pq Tn RIPE 177database. 178It contains network numbers and domain contact information 179for Europe. 180Get query syntax documentation using 181.Ic whois -r help 182.It Fl R 183Do a recursive lookup; 184.Nm 185will attempt to follow referrals to other whois servers. 186This is the default if no server is explicitly specified. 187See also the 188.Fl Q 189option. 190.It Fl S 191By default 192.Nm 193adjusts simple queries (without spaces) to produce more useful output 194from certain whois servers, 195and it suppresses some uninformative output. 196With the 197.Fl S 198option, 199.Nm 200sends the query and prints the output verbatim. 201.El 202.Pp 203The operands specified to 204.Nm 205are treated independently and may be used 206as queries on different whois servers. 207.Sh ENVIRONMENT 208.Bl -tag -width WHOIS_SERVER 209.It Ev WHOIS_SERVER 210The primary default whois server. 211If this is unset, 212.Nm 213uses the 214.Ev RA_SERVER 215environment variable. 216.It Ev RA_SERVER 217The secondary default whois server. 218If this is unset, 219.Nm 220will use 221.Pa whois.iana.org . 222.El 223.Sh EXIT STATUS 224.Ex -std 225.Sh EXAMPLES 226To obtain contact information about an 227administrator located in the Russian 228.Tn TLD 229domain 230.Qq Li RU , 231use the 232.Fl c 233option as shown in the following example, where 234.Ar CONTACT-ID 235is substituted with the actual contact identifier. 236.Pp 237.Dl Ic whois -c RU CONTACT-ID 238.Pp 239(Note: This example is specific to the 240.Tn TLD 241.Qq Li RU , 242but other 243.Tn TLDs 244can be queried by using a similar syntax.) 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 Ic whois -h whois.example.com -p rwhois query-data 256.Pp 257Some whois servers support complex queries 258with dash-letter options. 259You can use the 260.Fl - 261option to separate 262.Nm 263command options from whois server query options. 264A query containing spaces must be quoted as one 265argument to the 266.Nm 267command. 268The following example asks the RIPE whois server 269to return a brief description of its 270.Dq Li domain 271object type: 272.Pp 273.Dl Ic whois -r -- '-t domain' 274.Sh STANDARDS 275.Rs 276.%A K. Harrenstien 277.%A M. Stahl 278.%A E. Feinler 279.%D October 1985 280.%R RFC 954 281.%T NICNAME/WHOIS 282.Re 283.Pp 284.Rs 285.%A L. Daigle 286.%D September 2004 287.%R RFC 3912 288.%T WHOIS Protocol Specification 289.Re 290.Sh HISTORY 291The 292.Nm 293command appeared in 294.Bx 4.3 . 295