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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 June 14, 2004 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 aAbdgiIlmQrR6 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 b 77Use the Network Abuse Clearinghouse database. 78It contains addresses to which network abuse should be reported, 79indexed by domain name. 80.It Fl c Ar country-code 81This is the equivalent of using the 82.Fl h 83option with an argument of 84.Qq Ar country-code Ns Li .whois-servers.net . 85.It Fl d 86Use the US Department of Defense 87database. 88It contains points of contact for subdomains of 89.Pa .MIL . 90.It Fl g 91Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of 92contact for subdomains of 93.Pa .GOV . 94.It Fl h Ar host 95Use the specified host instead of the default variant. 96Either a host name or an IP address may be specified. 97.Pp 98By default 99.Nm 100constructs the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain 101.Pq Tn TLD 102of the supplied (single) argument, and appending 103.Qq Li .whois-servers.net . 104This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected 105automatically for a large number of 106.Tn TLDs . 107.Pp 108In the event that an IP 109address is specified, the whois server will default to the American 110Registry for Internet Numbers 111.Pq Tn ARIN . 112If a query to 113.Tn ARIN 114references 115.Tn APNIC , LACNIC , 116or 117.Tn RIPE , 118that server will be queried also, provided that the 119.Fl Q 120option is not specified. 121.Pp 122If the query is not a domain name or IP address, 123.Nm 124will fall back to 125.Pa whois.crsnic.net . 126.It Fl i 127Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers 128.Pq Pa whois.networksolutions.com 129database. 130It contains network numbers and domain contact information for most of 131.Pa .COM , .NET , .ORG 132and 133.Pa .EDU 134domains. 135.Pp 136.Sy NOTE ! 137The registration of these domains is now done by a number of 138independent and competing registrars and this database holds no information 139on the domains registered by organizations other than Network Solutions, Inc. 140Also, note that the 141.Tn InterNIC 142database 143.Pq Pa whois.internic.net 144is no longer handled by Network Solutions, Inc. 145For details, see 146.Pa http://www.internic.net/ . 147.Pp 148(Hint: Contact information, identified by the term 149.Em handle , 150can be looked up by prefixing 151.Qq Li "handle " 152to the 153.Tn NIC 154handle in the query.) 155.It Fl I 156Use the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority 157.Pq Tn IANA 158database. 159It contains network information for top-level domains. 160.It Fl l 161Use the Latin American and Caribbean IP address Regional Registry 162.Pq Tn LACNIC 163database. 164It contains network numbers used in much of Latin America and the 165Caribbean. 166.It Fl m 167Use the Route Arbiter Database 168.Pq Tn RADB 169database. 170It contains route policy specifications for a large 171number of operators' networks. 172.It Fl p Ar port 173Connect to the whois server on 174.Ar port . 175If this option is not specified, 176.Nm 177defaults to port 43. 178.It Fl Q 179Do a quick lookup. 180This means that 181.Nm 182will not attempt to lookup the name in the authoritative whois 183server (if one is listed). 184This option has no effect when combined with any other options. 185.It Fl r 186Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens 187.Pq Tn RIPE 188database. 189It contains network numbers and domain contact information 190for Europe. 191.It Fl R 192Use the Russia Network Information Center 193.Pq Tn RIPN 194database. 195It contains network numbers and domain contact information 196for subdomains of 197.Pa .RU . 198This option is deprecated; use the 199.Fl c 200option with an argument of 201.Qq Li RU 202instead. 203.It Fl 6 204Use the IPv6 Resource Center 205.Pq Tn 6bone 206database. 207It contains network names and addresses for the IPv6 network. 208.El 209.Pp 210The operands specified to 211.Nm 212are treated independently and may be used 213as queries on different whois servers. 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 handle 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 whois.example.com 260on port 261.Dq Li rwhois 262(written numerically as 4321). 263.Pp 264.Dl "whois -h whois.example.com -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