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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 15, 2001 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 aAdgimQrR6 44.Op Fl c Ar country-code | Fl h Ar host 45.Op Fl p Ar port 46.Ar name ... 47.Sh DESCRIPTION 48.Nm 49looks up records in the databases maintained by several 50Network Information Centers 51.Pq Tn NICs . 52.Pp 53The options are as follows: 54.Bl -tag -width indent 55.It Fl a 56Use the American Registry for Internet Numbers 57.Pq Tn ARIN 58database. 59It contains network numbers used in those parts of the world covered neither by 60.Tn APNIC 61nor by 62.Tn RIPE . 63.Pp 64(Hint: All point of contact handles in the 65.Tn ARIN 66whois database end with 67.Qq Li -ARIN . ) 68.Pp 69.It Fl A 70Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center 71.Pq Tn APNIC 72database. 73It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia, 74New Zealand, and the Pacific islands. 75.It Fl c Ar country-code 76This is the equivalent of using the 77.Fl h 78option with an argument of 79.Qq Ar country-code Ns Li .whois-servers.net . 80.It Fl d 81Use the US Department of Defense 82database. 83It contains points of contact for subdomains of 84.Pa .MIL . 85.It Fl g 86Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of 87contact for subdomains of 88.Pa .GOV . 89.It Fl h Ar host 90Use the specified host instead of the default variant. 91Either a host name or an IP address may be specified. 92.Pp 93By default 94.Nm 95constructs the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain 96.Pq Tn TLD 97of the supplied (single) argument, and appending 98.Qq Li .whois-servers.net . 99This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected 100automatically for a large number of 101.Tn TLDs . 102.Pp 103In the event that an IP 104address is specified, the whois server will default to the American 105Registry for Internet Numbers 106.Pq Tn ARIN . 107If a query to 108.Tn ARIN 109references 110.Tn APNIC 111or 112.Tn RIPE , 113that server will be queried also, provided that the 114.Fl Q 115option is not specified. 116.Pp 117If the query is not a domain name or IP address, 118.Nm 119will fall back to 120.Pa whois.crsnic.net . 121.It Fl i 122Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers 123.Pq Pa whois.networksolutions.com 124database. 125It contains network numbers and domain contact information for most of 126.Pa .COM , .NET , .ORG 127and 128.Pa .EDU 129domains. 130.Pp 131.Sy NOTE ! 132The registration of these domains is now done by a number of 133independent and competing registrars and this database holds no information 134on the domains registered by organizations other than Network Solutions, Inc. 135Also, note that the 136.Tn InterNIC 137database 138.Pq Pa whois.internic.net 139is no longer handled by Network Solutions, Inc. 140For details, see 141.Pa http://www.internic.net/ . 142.Pp 143(Hint: Contact information, identified by the term 144.Em handle , 145can be looked up by prefixing 146.Qq Li "handle " 147to the 148.Tn NIC 149handle in the query.) 150.Pp 151.It Fl m 152Use the Route Arbiter Database 153.Pq Tn RADB 154database. 155It contains route policy specifications for a large 156number of operators' networks. 157.It Fl p Ar port 158Connect to the whois server on 159.Ar port . 160If this option is not specified, 161.Nm 162defaults to port 43. 163.It Fl Q 164Do a quick lookup. 165This means that 166.Nm 167will not attempt to lookup the name in the authoritative whois 168server (if one is listed). 169This option has no effect when combined with any other options. 170.It Fl r 171Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens 172.Pq Tn RIPE 173database. 174It contains network numbers and domain contact information 175for Europe. 176.It Fl R 177Use the Russia Network Information Center 178.Pq Tn RIPN 179database. 180It contains network numbers and domain contact information 181for subdomains of 182.Pa .RU . 183This option is deprecated; use the 184.Fl c 185option with an argument of 186.Qq Li RU 187instead. 188.It Fl 6 189Use the IPv6 Resource Center 190.Pq Tn 6bone 191database. 192It contains network names and addresses for the IPv6 network. 193.El 194.Pp 195The operands specified to 196.Nm 197are treated independently and may be used 198as queries on different whois servers. 199.Sh EXAMPLES 200Most types of data, such as domain names and 201.Tn IP 202addresses, can be used as arguments to 203.Nm 204without any options, and 205.Nm 206will choose the correct whois server to query. 207Some exceptions, where 208.Nm 209will not be able to handle data correctly, are detailed below. 210.Pp 211To obtain contact information about an 212administrator located in the Russian 213.Tn TLD 214domain 215.Qq Li RU , 216use the 217.Fl c 218option as shown in the following example, where 219.Ar CONTACT-ID 220is substituted with the actual contact identifier. 221.Pp 222.Dl "whois -c RU CONTACT-ID" 223.Pp 224(Note: This example is specific to the 225.Tn TLD 226.Qq Li RU , 227but other 228.Tn TLDs 229can be queried by using a similar syntax.) 230.Pp 231The following example demonstrates how to obtain information about an 232.Tn IPv6 233address or hostname using the 234.Fl 6 235option, which directs the query to 236.Tn 6bone . 237.Pp 238.Dl "whois -6 IPv6-IP-Address" 239.Pp 240The following example demonstrates how to query 241a whois server using a non-standard port, where 242.Dq Li query-data 243is the query to be sent to 244.Dq Li whois.example.com 245on port 246.Dq Li rwhois 247(written numerically as 4321). 248.Pp 249.Dl "whois -h whois.example.com -p rwhois query-data" 250.Sh SEE ALSO 251.Rs 252.%A Ken Harrenstien 253.%A Vic White 254.%T NICNAME/WHOIS 255.%D 1 March 1982 256.%O RFC 812 257.Re 258.Sh HISTORY 259The 260.Nm 261command appeared in 262.Bx 4.3 . 263