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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 December 11, 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 aAbdfgiIklmQrR6 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 d 86Use the US Department of Defense 87database. 88It contains points of contact for subdomains of 89.Pa .MIL . 90.It Fl f 91Use the African Network Information Centre 92.Pq Tn AfriNIC 93database. It contains network numbers used in Africa and the islands of the 94western Indian Ocean. 95.It Fl g 96Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of 97contact for subdomains of 98.Pa .GOV . 99.It Fl h Ar host 100Use the specified host instead of the default variant. 101Either a host name or an IP address may be specified. 102.Pp 103By default 104.Nm 105constructs the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain 106.Pq Tn TLD 107of the supplied (single) argument, and appending 108.Qq Li .whois-servers.net . 109This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected 110automatically for a large number of 111.Tn TLDs . 112.Pp 113In the event that an IP 114address is specified, the whois server will default to the American 115Registry for Internet Numbers 116.Pq Tn ARIN . 117If a query to 118.Tn ARIN 119references 120.Tn APNIC , AfriNIC , LACNIC , 121or 122.Tn RIPE , 123that server will be queried also, provided that the 124.Fl Q 125option is not specified. 126.Pp 127If the query is not a domain name or IP address, 128.Nm 129will fall back to 130.Pa whois.crsnic.net . 131.It Fl i 132Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers 133.Pq Pa whois.networksolutions.com 134database. 135It contains network numbers and domain contact information for most of 136.Pa .COM , .NET , .ORG 137and 138.Pa .EDU 139domains. 140.Pp 141.Sy NOTE ! 142The registration of these domains is now done by a number of 143independent and competing registrars and this database holds no information 144on the domains registered by organizations other than Network Solutions, Inc. 145Also, note that the 146.Tn InterNIC 147database 148.Pq Pa whois.internic.net 149is no longer handled by Network Solutions, Inc. 150For details, see 151.Pa http://www.internic.net/ . 152.Pp 153(Hint: Contact information, identified by the term 154.Em handle , 155can be looked up by prefixing 156.Qq Li "handle " 157to the 158.Tn NIC 159handle in the query.) 160.It Fl I 161Use the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority 162.Pq Tn IANA 163database. 164It contains network information for top-level domains. 165.It Fl k 166Use the National Internet Development Agency of Korea's 167.Pq Tn KRNIC 168database. 169It contains network numbers and domain contact information 170for Korea. 171.It Fl l 172Use the Latin American and Caribbean IP address Regional Registry 173.Pq Tn LACNIC 174database. 175It contains network numbers used in much of Latin America and the 176Caribbean. 177.It Fl m 178Use the Route Arbiter Database 179.Pq Tn RADB 180database. 181It contains route policy specifications for a large 182number of operators' networks. 183.It Fl p Ar port 184Connect to the whois server on 185.Ar port . 186If this option is not specified, 187.Nm 188defaults to port 43. 189.It Fl Q 190Do a quick lookup. 191This means that 192.Nm 193will not attempt to lookup the name in the authoritative whois 194server (if one is listed). 195This option has no effect when combined with any other options. 196.It Fl r 197Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens 198.Pq Tn RIPE 199database. 200It contains network numbers and domain contact information 201for Europe. 202.It Fl R 203Use the Russia Network Information Center 204.Pq Tn RIPN 205database. 206It contains network numbers and domain contact information 207for subdomains of 208.Pa .RU . 209This option is deprecated; use the 210.Fl c 211option with an argument of 212.Qq Li RU 213instead. 214.It Fl 6 215Use the IPv6 Resource Center 216.Pq Tn 6bone 217database. 218It contains network names and addresses for the IPv6 network. 219.El 220.Pp 221The operands specified to 222.Nm 223are treated independently and may be used 224as queries on different whois servers. 225.Sh EXAMPLES 226Most types of data, such as domain names and 227.Tn IP 228addresses, can be used as arguments to 229.Nm 230without any options, and 231.Nm 232will choose the correct whois server to query. 233Some exceptions, where 234.Nm 235will not be able to handle data correctly, are detailed below. 236.Pp 237To obtain contact information about an 238administrator located in the Russian 239.Tn TLD 240domain 241.Qq Li RU , 242use the 243.Fl c 244option as shown in the following example, where 245.Ar CONTACT-ID 246is substituted with the actual contact identifier. 247.Pp 248.Dl "whois -c RU CONTACT-ID" 249.Pp 250(Note: This example is specific to the 251.Tn TLD 252.Qq Li RU , 253but other 254.Tn TLDs 255can be queried by using a similar syntax.) 256.Pp 257The following example demonstrates how to obtain information about an 258.Tn IPv6 259address or hostname using the 260.Fl 6 261option, which directs the query to 262.Tn 6bone . 263.Pp 264.Dl "whois -6 IPv6-IP-Address" 265.Pp 266The following example demonstrates how to query 267a whois server using a non-standard port, where 268.Dq Li query-data 269is the query to be sent to 270.Dq Li whois.example.com 271on port 272.Dq Li rwhois 273(written numerically as 4321). 274.Pp 275.Dl "whois -h whois.example.com -p rwhois query-data" 276.Sh SEE ALSO 277.Rs 278.%A Ken Harrenstien 279.%A Vic White 280.%T NICNAME/WHOIS 281.%D 1 March 1982 282.%O RFC 812 283.Re 284.Sh HISTORY 285The 286.Nm 287command appeared in 288.Bx 4.3 . 289