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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.\" 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 adgilmpQrR6 44.Op Fl c Ar country-code | Fl h Ar host 45.Ar name ... 46.Sh DESCRIPTION 47The 48.Nm 49utility looks 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 c Ar country-code 70This is the equivalent of using the 71.Fl h 72option with an argument of 73.Qq Ar country-code Ns Li .whois-servers.net . 74.It Fl d 75Use the US Department of Defense 76database. 77It contains points of contact for subdomains of 78.Pa .MIL . 79.It Fl g 80Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of 81contact for subdomains of 82.Pa .GOV . 83.It Fl h Ar host 84Use the specified host instead of the default variant. 85Either a host name or an IP address may be specified. 86.Pp 87By default 88.Nm 89constructs the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain 90.Pq Tn TLD 91of the supplied (single) argument, and appending 92.Qq Li .whois-servers.net . 93This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected 94automatically for a large number of 95.Tn TLDs . 96.Pp 97In the event that an IP 98address is specified, the whois server will default to the American 99Registry for Internet Numbers 100.Pq Tn ARIN . 101If a query to 102.Tn ARIN 103references 104.Tn APNIC , 105.Tn LACNIC , 106or 107.Tn RIPE , 108that server will be queried also, provided that the 109.Fl Q 110option is not specified. 111.Pp 112If the query is not a domain name or IP address, 113.Nm 114will fall back to 115.Pa whois.crsnic.net . 116.It Fl i 117Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers 118.Pq Pa whois.networksolutions.com 119database. 120It contains network numbers and domain contact information for most of 121.Pa .COM , .NET , .ORG 122and 123.Pa .EDU 124domains. 125.Pp 126.Sy NOTE ! 127The registration of these domains is now done by a number of 128independent and competing registrars and this database holds no information 129on the domains registered by organizations other than Network Solutions, Inc. 130Also, note that the 131.Tn InterNIC 132database 133.Pq Pa whois.internic.net 134is no longer handled by Network Solutions, Inc. 135For details, see 136.Pa http://www.internic.net/ . 137.Pp 138(Hint: Contact information, identified by the term 139.Em handle , 140can be looked up by prefixing 141.Qq Li "handle " 142to the 143.Tn NIC 144handle in the query.) 145.It Fl l 146Use the Latin American and Caribbean IP address Regional Registry 147.Pq Tn LACNIC 148database. 149It contains network numbers used in much of Latin America and the 150Caribbean. 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 158Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center 159.Pq Tn APNIC 160database. 161It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia, 162New Zealand, and the Pacific islands. 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 . 183.It Fl 6 184Use the IPv6 Resource Center 185.Pq Tn 6bone 186database. 187It contains network names and addresses for the IPv6 network. 188.El 189.Pp 190The operands specified to 191.Nm 192are treated independently and may be used 193as queries on different whois servers. 194.Sh EXAMPLES 195Most types of data, such as domain names and 196.Tn IP 197addresses, can be used as arguments to 198.Nm 199without any options, and 200.Nm 201will choose the correct whois server to query. 202Some exceptions, where 203.Nm 204will not be able to handle data correctly, are detailed below. 205.Pp 206To obtain contact information about an 207administrator located in the Russian 208.Tn TLD 209domain 210.Qq Li RU , 211use the 212.Fl c 213option as shown in the following example, where 214.Ar CONTACT-ID 215is substituted with the actual contact identifier. 216.Pp 217.Dl "whois -c RU CONTACT-ID" 218.Pp 219(Note: This example is specific to the 220.Tn TLD 221.Qq Li RU , 222but other 223.Tn TLDs 224can be queried by using a similar syntax.) 225.Pp 226The following example demonstrates how to obtain information about an 227.Tn IPv6 228address or hostname using the 229.Fl 6 230option, which directs the query to 231.Tn 6bone . 232.Pp 233.Dl "whois -6 IPv6-IP-Address" 234.Sh SEE ALSO 235.Rs 236.%A Ken Harrenstien 237.%A Vic White 238.%T NICNAME/WHOIS 239.%D 1 March 1982 240.%O RFC 812 241.Re 242.Sh HISTORY 243The 244.Nm 245command appeared in 246.Bx 4.3 . 247