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. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 13.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 14.\" without specific prior written permission. 15.\" 16.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 17.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 18.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 19.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 20.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 21.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 22.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 23.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 24.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 25.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 26.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 27.\" 28.\" From: @(#)whois.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93 29.\" $FreeBSD$ 30.\" 31.Dd April 25, 2016 32.Dt WHOIS 1 33.Os 34.Sh NAME 35.Nm whois 36.Nd "Internet domain name and network number directory service" 37.Sh SYNOPSIS 38.Nm 39.Op Fl aAbfgiIklmPQrRS 40.Op Fl c Ar TLD | Fl h Ar host 41.Op Fl p Ar port 42.Op Fl - 43.Ar name ... 44.Sh DESCRIPTION 45The 46.Nm 47utility looks up records in the databases maintained by several 48Network Information Centers 49.Pq Tn NICs . 50.Pp 51By default 52.Nm 53starts by querying the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) whois server, 54and follows referrals to whois servers 55that have more specific details about the query 56.Ar name . 57The IANA whois server knows about 58IP address and AS numbers 59as well as domain names. 60.Pp 61There are a few special cases where referrals do not work, so 62.Nm 63goes directly to the appropriate server. 64These include point-of-contact handles for ARIN, 65.Pa nic.at , 66NORID, and RIPE, 67and domain names under 68.Pa ac.uk . 69.Pp 70The options are as follows: 71.Bl -tag -width indent 72.It Fl a 73Use the American Registry for Internet Numbers 74.Pq Tn ARIN 75database. 76It contains network numbers used in those parts of the world covered neither by 77.Tn APNIC , AfriNIC , LACNIC , 78nor by 79.Tn RIPE . 80The query syntax is documented at 81.Pa https://www.arin.net/resources/whoisrws/whois_api.html#nicname 82.It Fl A 83Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center 84.Pq Tn APNIC 85database. 86It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia, 87New Zealand, and the Pacific islands. 88Get query syntax documentation using 89.Ic whois -A help 90.It Fl b 91Use the Network Abuse Clearinghouse database. 92It contains addresses to which network abuse should be reported, 93indexed by domain name. 94.It Fl c Ar TLD 95This is the equivalent of using the 96.Fl h 97option with an argument of 98.Qq Ar TLD Ns Li .whois-servers.net . 99This can be helpful for locating country-class TLD whois servers. 100.It Fl f 101Use the African Network Information Centre 102.Pq Tn AfriNIC 103database. 104It contains network numbers used in Africa and the islands of the 105western Indian Ocean. 106Get query syntax documentation using 107.Ic whois -f help 108.It Fl g 109Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of 110contact for subdomains of 111.Pa .GOV . 112.It Fl h Ar host 113Use the specified host instead of the default. 114Either a host name or an IP address may be specified. 115.It Fl i 116Use the traditional Network Information Center (InterNIC) 117.Pq Pa whois.internic.net 118database. 119This now contains only registrations for domain names under 120.Pa .COM , 121.Pa .NET , 122.Pa .EDU . 123You can specify the type of object to search for like 124.Ic whois -i ' Ns Ar type Ar name Ns Ic ' 125where 126.Ar type 127can be 128.Nm domain , nameserver , registrar . 129The 130.Ar name 131can contain 132.Li * 133wildcards. 134.It Fl I 135Use the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority 136.Pq Tn IANA 137database. 138.It Fl k 139Use the National Internet Development Agency of Korea's 140.Pq Tn KRNIC 141database. 142It contains network numbers and domain contact information 143for Korea. 144.It Fl l 145Use the Latin American and Caribbean IP address Regional Registry 146.Pq Tn LACNIC 147database. 148It contains network numbers used in much of Latin America and the 149Caribbean. 150.It Fl m 151Use the Route Arbiter Database 152.Pq Tn RADB 153database. 154It contains route policy specifications for a large 155number of operators' networks. 156.It Fl p Ar port 157Connect to the whois server on 158.Ar port . 159If this option is not specified, 160.Nm 161defaults to port 43. 162.It Fl P 163Use the PeeringDB database of AS numbers. 164It contains details about presence at internet peering points 165for many network operators. 166.It Fl Q 167Do a quick lookup; 168.Nm 169will not attempt to follow referrals to other whois servers. 170This is the default if a server is explicitly specified 171using one of the other options or in an environment variable. 172See also the 173.Fl R 174option. 175.It Fl r 176Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens 177.Pq Tn RIPE 178database. 179It contains network numbers and domain contact information 180for Europe. 181Get query syntax documentation using 182.Ic whois -r help 183.It Fl R 184Do a recursive lookup; 185.Nm 186will attempt to follow referrals to other whois servers. 187This is the default if no server is explicitly specified. 188See also the 189.Fl Q 190option. 191.It Fl S 192By default 193.Nm 194adjusts simple queries (without spaces) to produce more useful output 195from certain whois servers, 196and it suppresses some uninformative output. 197With the 198.Fl S 199option, 200.Nm 201sends the query and prints the output verbatim. 202.El 203.Pp 204The operands specified to 205.Nm 206are treated independently and may be used 207as queries on different whois servers. 208.Sh ENVIRONMENT 209.Bl -tag -width WHOIS_SERVER 210.It Ev WHOIS_SERVER 211The primary default whois server. 212If this is unset, 213.Nm 214uses the 215.Ev RA_SERVER 216environment variable. 217.It Ev RA_SERVER 218The secondary default whois server. 219If this is unset, 220.Nm 221will use 222.Pa whois.iana.org . 223.El 224.Sh EXIT STATUS 225.Ex -std 226.Sh EXAMPLES 227To obtain contact information about an 228administrator located in the Russian 229.Tn TLD 230domain 231.Qq Li RU , 232use the 233.Fl c 234option as shown in the following example, where 235.Ar CONTACT-ID 236is substituted with the actual contact identifier. 237.Pp 238.Dl Ic whois -c RU CONTACT-ID 239.Pp 240(Note: This example is specific to the 241.Tn TLD 242.Qq Li RU , 243but other 244.Tn TLDs 245can be queried by using a similar syntax.) 246.Pp 247The following example demonstrates how to query 248a whois server using a non-standard port, where 249.Dq Li query-data 250is the query to be sent to 251.Dq Li whois.example.com 252on port 253.Dq Li rwhois 254(written numerically as 4321). 255.Pp 256.Dl Ic whois -h whois.example.com -p rwhois query-data 257.Pp 258Some whois servers support complex queries 259with dash-letter options. 260You can use the 261.Fl - 262option to separate 263.Nm 264command options from whois server query options. 265A query containing spaces must be quoted as one 266argument to the 267.Nm 268command. 269The following example asks the RIPE whois server 270to return a brief description of its 271.Dq Li domain 272object type: 273.Pp 274.Dl Ic whois -r -- '-t domain' 275.Sh SEE ALSO 276.Rs 277.%A Ken Harrenstien 278.%A Vic White 279.%T NICNAME/WHOIS 280.%D 1 March 1982 281.%O RFC 812 282.Re 283.Sh HISTORY 284The 285.Nm 286command appeared in 287.Bx 4.3 . 288