usr.bin/whois/whois.1

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.\"     From: @(#)whois.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
.\" $FreeBSD$
.\"
.Dd November 17, 1999
.Dt WHOIS 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm whois
.Nd "Internet domain name and network number directory service"
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl adgimpQrR6
.Op Fl h Ar host
.Ar name ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm
looks up records in the databases maintained by several
Network Information Centers
.Pq Tn NICs .
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Fl a
Use the American Registry for Internet Numbers
.Pq Tn ARIN
database.
It contains network numbers used in those parts of the world covered neither by
.Tn APNIC
nor by
.Tn RIPE .
Contact (handle) information should be looked up by appending
.Qq Li -ARIN
to the NIC handle:
.Pp
.Dl "$ whois -a foo3-ARIN"
.Pp
.It Fl d
Use the US Department of Defense
database.
It contains points of contact for subdomains of
.Pa .MIL .
.It Fl g
Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of
contact for subdomains of
.Pa .GOV .
.It Fl h Ar host
Use the specified host instead of the default variant.
Either a host name or an IP address may be specified.
.Pp
By default
.Nm
construct the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain
.Pq Tn TLD
of the supplied (single) argument, and appending
.Qq Li .whois-servers.net .
This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected
automatically for a large number of TLDs.
.Pp
In the event that an IP
address is specified, the whois server will default to the American
Registry for Internet Numbers
.Pq Tn ARIN .
.Pp
If no required
.Pa whois-servers.net
subdomain found, fallback to
.Pa whois.crsnic.net
provided.
.It Fl i
Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers
.Pq Pa whois.networksolutions.com
database.
It contains network numbers and domain contact information for most of
.Pa .COM , .NET , .ORG
and
.Pa .EDU
domains.
.Pp
.Sy NOTE !
The registration of these domains is now done by a number of
independent and competing registrars and this database holds no information
on the domains registered by organizations other than Network Solutions, Inc.
Also, note that the
.Tn InterNIC
database
.Pq Pa whois.internic.net
is no longer handled by Network Solutions, Inc.
For details, see
.Pa http://www.internic.net/ .
.Pp
Contact (handle) information should be looked up by prefixing
.Qq Li "handle "
to the NIC handle in the querry:
.Pp
.Dl "$ whois -i 'handle foo3'"
.Pp
.It Fl m
Use the Route Arbiter Database
.Pq Tn RADB
database.
It contains route policy specifications for a large
number of operators' networks.
.It Fl p
Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center
.Pq Tn APNIC
database.
It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia,
New Zealand, and the Pacific islands.
.It Fl Q
Do a quick lookup.
This means that
.Nm
will not attempt to lookup the name in the authoritative whois
server (if one is listed) nor will it contact InterNic if a lookup
fails.
This flag has no effect when combined with any other flag.
.It Fl r
Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens
.Pq Tn RIPE
database.
It contains network numbers and domain contact information
for Europe.
.It Fl R
Use the Russia Network Information Center
.Pq Tn RIPN
database.
It contains network numbers and domain contact information
for subdomains of
.Pa .RU .
.It Fl 6
Use the IPv6 Resource Center
.Pq Tn 6bone
database.
It contains network names and addresses for the IPv6 network.
.El
.Pp
The operands specified to
.Nm
are concatenated together (separated by white-space) and presented to
the
.Nm
server.
.Pp
The default action, unless directed otherwise with a special
.Ar name ,
is to do a very broad search, looking for matches to
.Ar name
in all types of records and most fields (name, nicknames, hostname, net
address, etc.) in the database.
For more information as to what
.Ar name
operands have special meaning, and how to guide the search, use
the special name
.Dq Li help .
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Rs
.%A Ken Harrenstien
.%A Vic White
.%T NICNAME/WHOIS
.%D 1 March 1982
.%O RFC 812
.Re
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
command appeared in
.Bx 4.3 .