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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 October 2, 2009 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 aAbfgiIklmQrR 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 , AfriNIC , LACNIC , 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 f 86Use the African Network Information Centre 87.Pq Tn AfriNIC 88database. 89It contains network numbers used in Africa and the islands of the 90western Indian Ocean. 91.It Fl g 92Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of 93contact for subdomains of 94.Pa .GOV . 95.It Fl h Ar host 96Use the specified host instead of the default variant. 97Either a host name or an IP address may be specified. 98.Pp 99By default 100.Nm 101constructs the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain 102.Pq Tn TLD 103of the supplied (single) argument, and appending 104.Qq Li .whois-servers.net . 105This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected 106automatically for a large number of 107.Tn TLDs . 108.Pp 109In the event that an IP 110address is specified, the whois server will default to the American 111Registry for Internet Numbers 112.Pq Tn ARIN . 113If a query to 114.Tn ARIN 115references 116.Tn APNIC , AfriNIC , LACNIC , 117or 118.Tn RIPE , 119that server will be queried also, provided that the 120.Fl Q 121option is not specified. 122.Pp 123If the query is not a domain name or IP address, 124.Nm 125will fall back to 126.Pa whois.crsnic.net . 127.It Fl i 128Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers 129.Pq Pa whois.networksolutions.com 130database. 131It contains network numbers and domain contact information for most of 132.Pa .COM , .NET , .ORG 133and 134.Pa .EDU 135domains. 136.Pp 137.Sy NOTE ! 138The registration of these domains is now done by a number of 139independent and competing registrars and this database holds no information 140on the domains registered by organizations other than Network Solutions, Inc. 141Also, note that the 142.Tn InterNIC 143database 144.Pq Pa whois.internic.net 145is no longer handled by Network Solutions, Inc. 146For details, see 147.Pa http://www.internic.net/ . 148.Pp 149(Hint: Contact information, identified by the term 150.Em handle , 151can be looked up by prefixing 152.Qq Li "handle " 153to the 154.Tn NIC 155handle in the query.) 156.It Fl I 157Use the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority 158.Pq Tn IANA 159database. 160It contains network information for top-level domains. 161.It Fl k 162Use the National Internet Development Agency of Korea's 163.Pq Tn KRNIC 164database. 165It contains network numbers and domain contact information 166for Korea. 167.It Fl l 168Use the Latin American and Caribbean IP address Regional Registry 169.Pq Tn LACNIC 170database. 171It contains network numbers used in much of Latin America and the 172Caribbean. 173.It Fl m 174Use the Route Arbiter Database 175.Pq Tn RADB 176database. 177It contains route policy specifications for a large 178number of operators' networks. 179.It Fl p Ar port 180Connect to the whois server on 181.Ar port . 182If this option is not specified, 183.Nm 184defaults to port 43. 185.It Fl Q 186Do a quick lookup. 187This means that 188.Nm 189will not attempt to lookup the name in the authoritative whois 190server (if one is listed). 191This option has no effect when combined with any other options. 192.It Fl r 193Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens 194.Pq Tn RIPE 195database. 196It contains network numbers and domain contact information 197for Europe. 198.It Fl R 199Use the Russia Network Information Center 200.Pq Tn RIPN 201database. 202It contains network numbers and domain contact information 203for subdomains of 204.Pa .RU . 205This option is deprecated; use the 206.Fl c 207option with an argument of 208.Qq Li RU 209instead. 210.Pp 211The operands specified to 212.Nm 213are treated independently and may be used 214as queries on different whois servers. 215.El 216.Sh EXIT STATUS 217.Ex -std 218.Sh EXAMPLES 219Most types of data, such as domain names and 220.Tn IP 221addresses, can be used as arguments to 222.Nm 223without any options, and 224.Nm 225will choose the correct whois server to query. 226Some exceptions, where 227.Nm 228will not be able to handle data correctly, are detailed below. 229.Pp 230To obtain contact information about an 231administrator located in the Russian 232.Tn TLD 233domain 234.Qq Li RU , 235use the 236.Fl c 237option as shown in the following example, where 238.Ar CONTACT-ID 239is substituted with the actual contact identifier. 240.Pp 241.Dl "whois -c RU CONTACT-ID" 242.Pp 243(Note: This example is specific to the 244.Tn TLD 245.Qq Li RU , 246but other 247.Tn TLDs 248can be queried by using a similar syntax.) 249.Pp 250The following example demonstrates how to query 251a whois server using a non-standard port, where 252.Dq Li query-data 253is the query to be sent to 254.Dq Li whois.example.com 255on port 256.Dq Li rwhois 257(written numerically as 4321). 258.Pp 259.Dl "whois -h whois.example.com -p rwhois query-data" 260.Sh SEE ALSO 261.Rs 262.%A Ken Harrenstien 263.%A Vic White 264.%T NICNAME/WHOIS 265.%D 1 March 1982 266.%O RFC 812 267.Re 268.Sh HISTORY 269The 270.Nm 271command appeared in 272.Bx 4.3 . 273