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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: src/usr.bin/whois/whois.1,v 1.15.2.9 2002/11/17 15:05:55 mike Exp $ 30.\" $DragonFly: src/usr.bin/whois/whois.1,v 1.4 2005/01/09 13:30:06 liamfoy Exp $ 31.\" 32.Dd January 9, 2005 33.Dt WHOIS 1 34.Os 35.Sh NAME 36.Nm whois 37.Nd "Internet domain name and network number directory service" 38.Sh SYNOPSIS 39.Nm 40.Op Fl aAbdgiIklmQrR6 41.Op Fl c Ar country-code | Fl h Ar host 42.Op Fl p Ar port 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 51The options are as follows: 52.Bl -tag -width indent 53.It Fl a 54Use the American Registry for Internet Numbers 55.Pq Tn ARIN 56database. 57It contains network numbers used in those parts of the world covered neither by 58.Tn APNIC 59nor by 60.Tn RIPE . 61.Pp 62(Hint: All point of contact handles in the 63.Tn ARIN 64whois database end with 65.Qq Li -ARIN . ) 66.Pp 67.It Fl A 68Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center 69.Pq Tn APNIC 70database. 71It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia, 72New Zealand, and the Pacific islands. 73.It Fl b 74Use the Network Abuse Clearinghouse database. 75It contains addresses to which network abuse should be reported, 76indexed by domain name. 77.It Fl c Ar country-code 78This is the equivalent of using the 79.Fl h 80option with an argument of 81.Qq Ar country-code Ns Li .whois-servers.net . 82.It Fl d 83Use the US Department of Defense 84database. 85It contains points of contact for subdomains of 86.Pa .MIL . 87.It Fl g 88Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of 89contact for subdomains of 90.Pa .GOV . 91.It Fl h Ar host 92Use the specified host instead of the default variant. 93Either a host name or an IP address may be specified. 94.Pp 95By default 96.Nm 97constructs the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain 98.Pq Tn TLD 99of the supplied (single) argument, and appending 100.Qq Li .whois-servers.net . 101This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected 102automatically for a large number of 103.Tn TLDs . 104.Pp 105In the event that an IP 106address is specified, the whois server will default to the American 107Registry for Internet Numbers 108.Pq Tn ARIN . 109If a query to 110.Tn ARIN 111references 112.Tn APNIC , LACNIC , 113or 114.Tn RIPE , 115that server will be queried also, provided that the 116.Fl Q 117option is not specified. 118.Pp 119If the query is not a domain name or IP address, 120.Nm 121will fall back to 122.Pa whois.crsnic.net . 123.It Fl i 124Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers 125.Pq Pa whois.networksolutions.com 126database. 127It contains network numbers and domain contact information for most of 128.Pa .COM , .NET , .ORG 129and 130.Pa .EDU 131domains. 132.Pp 133.Sy NOTE ! 134The registration of these domains is now done by a number of 135independent and competing registrars and this database holds no information 136on the domains registered by organizations other than Network Solutions, Inc. 137Also, note that the 138.Tn InterNIC 139database 140.Pq Pa whois.internic.net 141is no longer handled by Network Solutions, Inc. 142For details, see 143.Pa http://www.internic.net/ . 144.Pp 145(Hint: Contact information, identified by the term 146.Em handle , 147can be looked up by prefixing 148.Qq Li "handle " 149to the 150.Tn NIC 151handle in the query.) 152.It Fl I 153Use the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority 154.Pq Tn IANA 155database. 156It contains network information for top-level domains. 157.It Fl k 158Use the National Internet Development Agency of Korea's 159.Pq Tn KRNIC 160database. 161It contains network numbers and domain contact information 162for Korea. 163.It Fl l 164Use the Latin American and Caribbean IP address Regional Registry 165.Pq Tn LACNIC 166database. 167It contains network numbers used in much of Latin America and the 168Caribbean. 169.It Fl m 170Use the Route Arbiter Database 171.Pq Tn RADB 172database. 173It contains route policy specifications for a large 174number of operators' networks. 175.It Fl p Ar port 176Connect to the whois server on 177.Ar port . 178If this option is not specified, 179.Nm 180defaults to port 43. 181.It Fl Q 182Do a quick lookup. 183This means that 184.Nm 185will not attempt to lookup the name in the authoritative whois 186server (if one is listed). 187This option has no effect when combined with any other options. 188.It Fl r 189Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens 190.Pq Tn RIPE 191database. 192It contains network numbers and domain contact information 193for Europe. 194.It Fl R 195Use the Russia Network Information Center 196.Pq Tn RIPN 197database. 198It contains network numbers and domain contact information 199for subdomains of 200.Pa .RU . 201This option is deprecated; use the 202.Fl c 203option with an argument of 204.Qq Li RU 205instead. 206.It Fl 6 207Use the IPv6 Resource Center 208.Pq Tn 6bone 209database. 210It contains network names and addresses for the IPv6 network. 211.El 212.Pp 213The operands specified to 214.Nm 215are treated independently and may be used 216as queries on different whois servers. 217.Sh EXAMPLES 218Most types of data, such as domain names and 219.Tn IP 220addresses, can be used as arguments to 221.Nm 222without any options, and 223.Nm 224will choose the correct whois server to query. 225Some exceptions, where 226.Nm 227will not be able to handle data correctly, are detailed below. 228.Pp 229To obtain contact information about an 230administrator located in the Russian 231.Tn TLD 232domain 233.Qq Li RU , 234use the 235.Fl c 236option as shown in the following example, where 237.Ar CONTACT-ID 238is substituted with the actual contact identifier. 239.Pp 240.Dl "whois -c RU CONTACT-ID" 241.Pp 242(Note: This example is specific to the 243.Tn TLD 244.Qq Li RU , 245but other 246.Tn TLDs 247can be queried by using a similar syntax.) 248.Pp 249The following example demonstrates how to obtain information about an 250.Tn IPv6 251address or hostname using the 252.Fl 6 253option, which directs the query to 254.Tn 6bone . 255.Pp 256.Dl "whois -6 IPv6-IP-Address" 257.Pp 258The following example demonstrates how to query 259a whois server using a non-standard port, where 260.Dq Li query-data 261is the query to be sent to 262.Dq Li whois.example.com 263on port 264.Dq Li rwhois 265(written numerically as 4321). 266.Pp 267.Dl "whois -h whois.example.com -p rwhois query-data" 268.Sh SEE ALSO 269.Rs 270.%A Ken Harrenstien 271.%A Vic White 272.%T NICNAME/WHOIS 273.%D 1 March 1982 274.%O RFC 812 275.Re 276.Sh HISTORY 277The 278.Nm 279command appeared in 280.Bx 4.3 . 281