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32 .\" From: @(#)whois.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
33 .\" $FreeBSD: src/usr.bin/whois/whois.1,v 1.15.2.9 2002/11/17 15:05:55 mike Exp $
34 .\" $DragonFly: src/usr.bin/whois/whois.1,v 1.4 2005/01/09 13:30:06 liamfoy Exp $
35 .\"
36 .Dd January 9, 2005
37 .Dt WHOIS 1
38 .Os
39 .Sh NAME
40 .Nm whois
41 .Nd "Internet domain name and network number directory service"
42 .Sh SYNOPSIS
43 .Nm
44 .Op Fl aAbdgiIklmQrR6
45 .Op Fl c Ar country-code | Fl h Ar host
46 .Op Fl p Ar port
47 .Ar name ...
48 .Sh DESCRIPTION
49 The
50 .Nm
51 utility looks up records in the databases maintained by several
52 Network Information Centers
53 .Pq Tn NICs .
54 .Pp
55 The options are as follows:
56 .Bl -tag -width indent
57 .It Fl a
58 Use the American Registry for Internet Numbers
59 .Pq Tn ARIN
60 database.
61 It contains network numbers used in those parts of the world covered neither by
62 .Tn APNIC
63 nor by
64 .Tn RIPE .
65 .Pp
66 (Hint: All point of contact handles in the
67 .Tn ARIN
68 whois database end with
69 .Qq Li -ARIN . )
70 .Pp
71 .It Fl A
72 Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center
73 .Pq Tn APNIC
74 database.
75 It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia,
76 New Zealand, and the Pacific islands.
77 .It Fl b
78 Use the Network Abuse Clearinghouse database.
79 It contains addresses to which network abuse should be reported,
80 indexed by domain name.
81 .It Fl c Ar country-code
82 This is the equivalent of using the
83 .Fl h
84 option with an argument of
85 .Qq Ar country-code Ns Li .whois-servers.net .
86 .It Fl d
87 Use the US Department of Defense
88 database.
89 It contains points of contact for subdomains of
90 .Pa .MIL .
91 .It Fl g
92 Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of
93 contact for subdomains of
94 .Pa .GOV .
95 .It Fl h Ar host
96 Use the specified host instead of the default variant.
97 Either a host name or an IP address may be specified.
98 .Pp
99 By default
100 .Nm
101 constructs the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain
102 .Pq Tn TLD
103 of the supplied (single) argument, and appending
104 .Qq Li .whois-servers.net .
105 This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected
106 automatically for a large number of
107 .Tn TLDs .
108 .Pp
109 In the event that an IP
110 address is specified, the whois server will default to the American
111 Registry for Internet Numbers
112 .Pq Tn ARIN .
113 If a query to
114 .Tn ARIN
115 references
116 .Tn APNIC , LACNIC ,
117 or
118 .Tn RIPE ,
119 that server will be queried also, provided that the
120 .Fl Q
121 option is not specified.
122 .Pp
123 If the query is not a domain name or IP address,
124 .Nm
125 will fall back to
126 .Pa whois.crsnic.net .
127 .It Fl i
128 Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers
129 .Pq Pa whois.networksolutions.com
130 database.
131 It contains network numbers and domain contact information for most of
132 .Pa .COM , .NET , .ORG
133 and
134 .Pa .EDU
135 domains.
136 .Pp
137 .Sy NOTE !
138 The registration of these domains is now done by a number of
139 independent and competing registrars and this database holds no information
140 on the domains registered by organizations other than Network Solutions, Inc.
141 Also, note that the
142 .Tn InterNIC
143 database
144 .Pq Pa whois.internic.net
145 is no longer handled by Network Solutions, Inc.
146 For details, see
147 .Pa http://www.internic.net/ .
148 .Pp
149 (Hint: Contact information, identified by the term
150 .Em handle ,
151 can be looked up by prefixing
152 .Qq Li "handle "
153 to the
154 .Tn NIC
155 handle in the query.)
156 .It Fl I
157 Use the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
158 .Pq Tn IANA
159 database.
160 It contains network information for top-level domains.
161 .It Fl k
162 Use the National Internet Development Agency of Korea's
163 .Pq Tn KRNIC
164 database.
165 It contains network numbers and domain contact information
166 for Korea.
167 .It Fl l
168 Use the Latin American and Caribbean IP address Regional Registry
169 .Pq Tn LACNIC
170 database.
171 It contains network numbers used in much of Latin America and the
172 Caribbean.
173 .It Fl m
174 Use the Route Arbiter Database
175 .Pq Tn RADB
176 database.
177 It contains route policy specifications for a large
178 number of operators' networks.
179 .It Fl p Ar port
180 Connect to the whois server on
181 .Ar port .
182 If this option is not specified,
183 .Nm
184 defaults to port 43.
185 .It Fl Q
186 Do a quick lookup.
187 This means that
188 .Nm
189 will not attempt to lookup the name in the authoritative whois
190 server (if one is listed).
191 This option has no effect when combined with any other options.
192 .It Fl r
193 Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens
194 .Pq Tn RIPE
195 database.
196 It contains network numbers and domain contact information
197 for Europe.
198 .It Fl R
199 Use the Russia Network Information Center
200 .Pq Tn RIPN
201 database.
202 It contains network numbers and domain contact information
203 for subdomains of
204 .Pa .RU .
205 This option is deprecated; use the
206 .Fl c
207 option with an argument of
208 .Qq Li RU
209 instead.
210 .It Fl 6
211 Use the IPv6 Resource Center
212 .Pq Tn 6bone
213 database.
214 It contains network names and addresses for the IPv6 network.
215 .El
216 .Pp
217 The operands specified to
218 .Nm
219 are treated independently and may be used
220 as queries on different whois servers.
221 .Sh EXAMPLES
222 Most types of data, such as domain names and
223 .Tn IP
224 addresses, can be used as arguments to
225 .Nm
226 without any options, and
227 .Nm
228 will choose the correct whois server to query.
229 Some exceptions, where
230 .Nm
231 will not be able to handle data correctly, are detailed below.
232 .Pp
233 To obtain contact information about an
234 administrator located in the Russian
235 .Tn TLD
236 domain
237 .Qq Li RU ,
238 use the
239 .Fl c
240 option as shown in the following example, where
241 .Ar CONTACT-ID
242 is substituted with the actual contact identifier.
243 .Pp
244 .Dl "whois -c RU CONTACT-ID"
245 .Pp
246 (Note: This example is specific to the
247 .Tn TLD
248 .Qq Li RU ,
249 but other
250 .Tn TLDs
251 can be queried by using a similar syntax.)
252 .Pp
253 The following example demonstrates how to obtain information about an
254 .Tn IPv6
255 address or hostname using the
256 .Fl 6
257 option, which directs the query to
258 .Tn 6bone .
259 .Pp
260 .Dl "whois -6 IPv6-IP-Address"
261 .Pp
262 The following example demonstrates how to query
263 a whois server using a non-standard port, where
264 .Dq Li query-data
265 is the query to be sent to
266 .Dq Li whois.example.com
267 on port
268 .Dq Li rwhois
269 (written numerically as 4321).
270 .Pp
271 .Dl "whois -h whois.example.com -p rwhois query-data"
272 .Sh SEE ALSO
273 .Rs
274 .%A Ken Harrenstien
275 .%A Vic White
276 .%T NICNAME/WHOIS
277 .%D 1 March 1982
278 .%O RFC 812
279 .Re
280 .Sh HISTORY
281 The
282 .Nm
283 command appeared in
284 .Bx 4.3 .