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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 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