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 November 17, 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 43.Op Fl adgimpQrR6 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 . 61Contact (handle) information should be looked up by appending "-ARIN" to the 62NIC handle: 63.Pp 64.D1 Ic $ whois -a foo3-ARIN 65.Pp 66.It Fl d 67Use the US Department of Defense 68database. It contains points of contact for subdomains of 69.Tn \&.MIL . 70.It Fl g 71Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of 72contact for subdomains of 73.Tn \&.GOV . 74.It Fl h Ar host 75Use the specified host instead of the default variant. 76Either a host name or an IP address may be specified. 77.Pp 78By default 79.Nm 80construct the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain 81.Pq Tn TLD 82of the supplied (single) argument, and appending ".whois-servers.net". 83This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected 84automatically for a large number of TLDs. 85If no required whois-servers.net subdomain found, fallback 86to whois.crsnic.net provided. 87.It Fl i 88Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers 89.Pq Tn whois.networksolutions.com 90database. It contains network numbers and domain contact information 91for most of 92.Tn \&.COM , 93.Tn \&.NET , 94.Tn \&.ORG 95and 96.Tn \&.EDU 97domains. 98NOTE! The registration of these domains is now done by a number of 99independent and competing registrars and this database holds no information 100on the domains registered by organizations other than Network Solutions, Inc. 101Also, note that the InterNIC database 102.Pq Tn whois.internic.net 103is no longer handled by Network Solutions, Inc. 104For details, see: 105http://www.internic.net/. 106Contact (handle) information should be looked up by prefixing "handle " to the 107NIC handle in the querry: 108.Pp 109.D1 Ic $ whois -i 'handle foo3' 110.Pp 111.It Fl m 112Use the Route Arbiter Database 113.Pq Tn RADB 114database. 115It contains route policy specifications for a large 116number of operators' networks. 117.It Fl p 118Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center 119.Pq Tn APNIC 120database. It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia, 121New Zealand, and the Pacific islands. 122.It Fl Q 123Do a quick lookup. This means that 124.Nm 125will not attempt to lookup the name in the authoritative whois 126server (if one is listed) nor will it contact InterNic if a lookup 127fails. This flag has no effect when combined with any other flag. 128.It Fl r 129Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens 130.Pq Tn RIPE 131database. It contains network numbers and domain contact information 132for Europe. 133.It Fl R 134Use the Russia Network Information Center 135.Pq Tn RIPN 136database. It contains network numbers and domain contact information 137for subdomains of 138.Tn \&.RU . 139.It Fl 6 140Use the IPv6 Resource Center 141.Pq Tn 6bone 142database. It contains network names and addresses for the IPv6 network. 143.El 144.Pp 145The operands specified to 146.Nm 147are concatenated together (separated by white-space) and presented to 148the 149.Nm 150server. 151.Pp 152The default action, unless directed otherwise with a special 153.Ar name , 154is to do a very broad search, looking for matches to 155.Ar name 156in all types of records and most fields (name, nicknames, hostname, net 157address, etc.) in the database. 158For more information as to what 159.Ar name 160operands have special meaning, and how to guide the search, use 161the special name 162.Dq Ar help . 163.Sh SEE ALSO 164.Rs 165.%A Ken Harrenstien 166.%A Vic White 167.%T NICNAME/WHOIS 168.%D 1 March 1982 169.%O RFC 812 170.Re 171.Sh HISTORY 172The 173.Nm 174command appeared in 175.Bx 4.3 . 176