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.\" $Id: whois.1,v 1.5 1999/02/01 19:22:27 wollman Exp $ 34.\" 35.Dd February 1, 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 adgprR 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 NIC 71(whois.internic.net). 72Either a host name or an IP address may be specified. 73.It Fl p 74Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center 75.Pq Tn APNIC 76database. It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia, 77New Zealand, and the Pacific islands. 78.It Fl r 79Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens 80.Pq Tn RIPE 81database. It contains network numbers and domain contact information 82for Europe. 83.It Fl R 84Use the Russia Network Information Center 85.Pq Tn RIPN 86database. It contains network numbers and domain contact information 87for subdomains of 88.Tn \&.RU . 89.El 90.Pp 91The operands specified to 92.Nm 93are concatenated together (separated by white-space) and presented to 94the 95.Nm 96server. 97.Pp 98The default action, unless directed otherwise with a special 99.Ar name , 100is to do a very broad search, looking for matches to 101.Ar name 102in all types of records and most fields (name, nicknames, hostname, net 103address, etc.) in the database. 104For more information as to what 105.Ar name 106operands have special meaning, and how to guide the search, use 107the special name 108.Dq Ar help . 109.Sh SEE ALSO 110.Rs 111.%A Ken Harrenstien 112.%A Vic White 113.%T NICNAME/WHOIS 114.%D 1 March 1982 115.%O RFC 812 116.Re 117.Sh HISTORY 118The 119.Nm 120command appeared in 121.Bx 4.3 . 122