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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: 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 1.2 2003/06/17 04:29:33 dillon Exp $ 35.\" 36.Dd December 15, 2001 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 adgilmpQrR6 45.Op Fl c Ar country-code | Fl h Ar host 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 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 c Ar country-code 71This is the equivalent of using the 72.Fl h 73option with an argument of 74.Qq Ar country-code Ns Li .whois-servers.net . 75.It Fl d 76Use the US Department of Defense 77database. 78It contains points of contact for subdomains of 79.Pa .MIL . 80.It Fl g 81Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of 82contact for subdomains of 83.Pa .GOV . 84.It Fl h Ar host 85Use the specified host instead of the default variant. 86Either a host name or an IP address may be specified. 87.Pp 88By default 89.Nm 90constructs the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain 91.Pq Tn TLD 92of the supplied (single) argument, and appending 93.Qq Li .whois-servers.net . 94This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected 95automatically for a large number of 96.Tn TLDs . 97.Pp 98In the event that an IP 99address is specified, the whois server will default to the American 100Registry for Internet Numbers 101.Pq Tn ARIN . 102If a query to 103.Tn ARIN 104references 105.Tn APNIC , 106.Tn LACNIC , 107or 108.Tn RIPE , 109that server will be queried also, provided that the 110.Fl Q 111option is not specified. 112.Pp 113If the query is not a domain name or IP address, 114.Nm 115will fall back to 116.Pa whois.crsnic.net . 117.It Fl i 118Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers 119.Pq Pa whois.networksolutions.com 120database. 121It contains network numbers and domain contact information for most of 122.Pa .COM , .NET , .ORG 123and 124.Pa .EDU 125domains. 126.Pp 127.Sy NOTE ! 128The registration of these domains is now done by a number of 129independent and competing registrars and this database holds no information 130on the domains registered by organizations other than Network Solutions, Inc. 131Also, note that the 132.Tn InterNIC 133database 134.Pq Pa whois.internic.net 135is no longer handled by Network Solutions, Inc. 136For details, see 137.Pa http://www.internic.net/ . 138.Pp 139(Hint: Contact information, identified by the term 140.Em handle , 141can be looked up by prefixing 142.Qq Li "handle " 143to the 144.Tn NIC 145handle in the query.) 146.It Fl l 147Use the Latin American and Caribbean IP address Regional Registry 148.Pq Tn LACNIC 149database. 150It contains network numbers used in much of Latin America and the 151Caribbean. 152.It Fl m 153Use the Route Arbiter Database 154.Pq Tn RADB 155database. 156It contains route policy specifications for a large 157number of operators' networks. 158.It Fl p 159Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center 160.Pq Tn APNIC 161database. 162It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia, 163New Zealand, and the Pacific islands. 164.It Fl Q 165Do a quick lookup. 166This means that 167.Nm 168will not attempt to lookup the name in the authoritative whois 169server (if one is listed). 170This option has no effect when combined with any other options. 171.It Fl r 172Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens 173.Pq Tn RIPE 174database. 175It contains network numbers and domain contact information 176for Europe. 177.It Fl R 178Use the Russia Network Information Center 179.Pq Tn RIPN 180database. 181It contains network numbers and domain contact information 182for subdomains of 183.Pa .RU . 184.It Fl 6 185Use the IPv6 Resource Center 186.Pq Tn 6bone 187database. 188It contains network names and addresses for the IPv6 network. 189.El 190.Pp 191The operands specified to 192.Nm 193are treated independently and may be used 194as queries on different whois servers. 195.Sh EXAMPLES 196Most types of data, such as domain names and 197.Tn IP 198addresses, can be used as arguments to 199.Nm 200without any options, and 201.Nm 202will choose the correct whois server to query. 203Some exceptions, where 204.Nm 205will not be able to handle data correctly, are detailed below. 206.Pp 207To obtain contact information about an 208administrator located in the Russian 209.Tn TLD 210domain 211.Qq Li RU , 212use the 213.Fl c 214option as shown in the following example, where 215.Ar CONTACT-ID 216is substituted with the actual contact identifier. 217.Pp 218.Dl "whois -c RU CONTACT-ID" 219.Pp 220(Note: This example is specific to the 221.Tn TLD 222.Qq Li RU , 223but other 224.Tn TLDs 225can be queried by using a similar syntax.) 226.Pp 227The following example demonstrates how to obtain information about an 228.Tn IPv6 229address or hostname using the 230.Fl 6 231option, which directs the query to 232.Tn 6bone . 233.Pp 234.Dl "whois -6 IPv6-IP-Address" 235.Sh SEE ALSO 236.Rs 237.%A Ken Harrenstien 238.%A Vic White 239.%T NICNAME/WHOIS 240.%D 1 March 1982 241.%O RFC 812 242.Re 243.Sh HISTORY 244The 245.Nm 246command appeared in 247.Bx 4.3 . 248