xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/whois/whois.1 (revision 6990ffd8a95caaba6858ad44ff1b3157d1efba8f)
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 September 4, 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
48.Nm
49looks up records in the databases maintained by several
50Network Information Centers
51.Pq Tn NICs .
52.Pp
53The options are as follows:
54.Bl -tag -width indent
55.It Fl a
56Use the American Registry for Internet Numbers
57.Pq Tn ARIN
58database.
59It contains network numbers used in those parts of the world covered neither by
60.Tn APNIC
61nor by
62.Tn RIPE .
63.Pp
64(Hint: All point of contact handles in the
65.Tn ARIN
66whois database end with
67.Qq Li -ARIN . )
68.Pp
69.It Fl A
70Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center
71.Pq Tn APNIC
72database.
73It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia,
74New Zealand, and the Pacific islands.
75.It Fl c Ar country-code
76This is the equivalent of using the
77.Fl h
78option with an argument of
79.Qq Ar country-code Ns Li .whois-servers.net .
80.It Fl d
81Use the US Department of Defense
82database.
83It contains points of contact for subdomains of
84.Pa .MIL .
85.It Fl g
86Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of
87contact for subdomains of
88.Pa .GOV .
89.It Fl h Ar host
90Use the specified host instead of the default variant.
91Either a host name or an IP address may be specified.
92.Pp
93By default
94.Nm
95constructs the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain
96.Pq Tn TLD
97of the supplied (single) argument, and appending
98.Qq Li .whois-servers.net .
99This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected
100automatically for a large number of
101.Tn TLDs .
102.Pp
103In the event that an IP
104address is specified, the whois server will default to the American
105Registry for Internet Numbers
106.Pq Tn ARIN .
107If a query to
108.Tn ARIN
109references
110.Tn APNIC
111or
112.Tn RIPE ,
113that server will be queried also, provided that the
114.Fl Q
115option is not specified.
116.Pp
117If the query is not a domain name or IP address,
118.Nm
119will fall back to
120.Pa whois.crsnic.net .
121.It Fl i
122Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers
123.Pq Pa whois.networksolutions.com
124database.
125It contains network numbers and domain contact information for most of
126.Pa .COM , .NET , .ORG
127and
128.Pa .EDU
129domains.
130.Pp
131.Sy NOTE !
132The registration of these domains is now done by a number of
133independent and competing registrars and this database holds no information
134on the domains registered by organizations other than Network Solutions, Inc.
135Also, note that the
136.Tn InterNIC
137database
138.Pq Pa whois.internic.net
139is no longer handled by Network Solutions, Inc.
140For details, see
141.Pa http://www.internic.net/ .
142.Pp
143(Hint: Contact information, identified by the term
144.Em handle ,
145can be looked up by prefixing
146.Qq Li "handle "
147to the
148.Tn NIC
149handle in the query.)
150.Pp
151.It Fl m
152Use the Route Arbiter Database
153.Pq Tn RADB
154database.
155It contains route policy specifications for a large
156number of operators' networks.
157.It Fl p Ar port
158Connect to the whois server on
159.Ar port .
160If this option is not specified,
161.Nm
162defaults to port 43.
163.It Fl Q
164Do a quick lookup.
165This means that
166.Nm
167will not attempt to lookup the name in the authoritative whois
168server (if one is listed) nor will it contact InterNic if a lookup
169fails.
170This flag has no effect when combined with any other flag.
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 concatenated together (separated by white-space) and presented to
199the
200.Nm
201server.
202.Pp
203The default action, unless directed otherwise with a special
204.Ar name ,
205is to do a very broad search, looking for matches to
206.Ar name
207in all types of records and most fields (name, nicknames, hostname, net
208address, etc.) in the database.
209For more information as to what
210.Ar name
211operands have special meaning, and how to guide the search, use
212the special name
213.Dq Li help .
214.Sh EXAMPLES
215Most types of data, such as domain names and
216.Tn IP
217addresses, can be used as arguments to
218.Nm
219without any options, and
220.Nm
221will choose the correct whois server to query.
222Some exceptions, where
223.Nm
224will not be able to handled data correctly, are detailed below.
225.Pp
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 "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 obtain information about an
247.Tn IPv6
248address or hostname using the
249.Fl 6
250option, which directs the query to
251.Tn 6bone .
252.Pp
253.Dl "whois -6 IPv6-IP-Address"
254.Pp
255The following example demonstrates how to query
256a whois server using a non-standard port, where
257.Dq Li query-data
258is the query to be sent to
259.Dq Li non-existent.host
260on port
261.Dq Li rwhois
262(written numerically as 4321).
263.Pp
264.Dl "whois -h non-existent.host -p rwhois query-data"
265.Sh SEE ALSO
266.Rs
267.%A Ken Harrenstien
268.%A Vic White
269.%T NICNAME/WHOIS
270.%D 1 March 1982
271.%O RFC 812
272.Re
273.Sh HISTORY
274The
275.Nm
276command appeared in
277.Bx 4.3 .
278