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.\" $Id$ 34.\" 35.Dd February 19, 1998 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 adpr 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 Military) Defense Data Network 63.Pq Tn DDN 64database. It contains points of contact for subdomains of 65.Tn \&.MIL . 66.It Fl h Ar host 67Use the specified host instead of the default NIC 68(whois.internic.net). 69Either a host name or an IP address may be specified. 70.It Fl p 71Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center 72.Pq Tn APNIC 73database. It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia, 74New Zealand, and the Pacific islands. 75.It Fl r 76Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens 77.Pq Tn RIPE 78database. It contains network numbers and domain contact information 79for Europe. 80.El 81.Pp 82The operands specified to 83.Nm 84are concatenated together (separated by white-space) and presented to 85the 86.Nm 87server. 88.Pp 89The default action, unless directed otherwise with a special 90.Ar name , 91is to do a very broad search, looking for matches to 92.Ar name 93in all types of records and most fields (name, nicknames, hostname, net 94address, etc.) in the database. 95For more information as to what 96.Ar name 97operands have special meaning, and how to guide the search, use 98the special name 99.Dq Ar help . 100.Sh SEE ALSO 101RFC 812: Nicname/Whois 102.Sh HISTORY 103The 104.Nm 105command appeared in 106.Bx 4.3 . 107