1.\" $OpenBSD: whois.1,v 1.28 2010/03/04 18:17:03 krw Exp $ 2.\" $NetBSD: whois.1,v 1.5 1995/08/31 21:51:32 jtc Exp $ 3.\" 4.\" Copyright (c) 1985, 1990, 1993 5.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 6.\" 7.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 8.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 9.\" are met: 10.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 11.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 12.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 13.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 14.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 15.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 16.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 17.\" without specific prior written permission. 18.\" 19.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 20.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 21.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 22.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 23.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 24.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 25.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 26.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 27.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 28.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 29.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 30.\" 31.\" @(#)whois.1 8.2 (Berkeley) 6/20/94 32.\" 33.Dd $Mdocdate: March 4 2010 $ 34.Dt WHOIS 1 35.Os 36.Sh NAME 37.Nm whois 38.Nd Internet domain name and network number directory service 39.Sh SYNOPSIS 40.Nm whois 41.Op Fl AadgilmQRr 42.Oo 43.Fl c Ar country-code | Fl h Ar host 44.Oc 45.Op Fl p Ar port 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 Ds 56.It Fl A 57Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center 58.Pq Tn APNIC 59database. 60It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia, 61New Zealand, and the Pacific islands. 62.It Fl a 63Use the American Registry for Internet Numbers 64.Pq Tn ARIN 65database. 66It contains network numbers used in those parts of the world 67covered neither by 68.Tn AfriNIC , 69.Tn APNIC , 70.Tn LACNIC , 71nor by 72.Tn RIPE . 73.Pp 74(Hint: All point of contact handles in the 75.Tn ARIN 76whois database end with 77.Qq Li -ARIN . ) 78.It Fl c Ar country-code 79This is the equivalent of using the 80.Fl h 81option with an argument of 82.Qq Ar country-code Ns Li .whois-servers.net . 83.It Fl d 84Use the US Department of Defense database. 85It contains points of contact for subdomains of 86.Tn \&.MIL . 87.It Fl g 88Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of 89contact for subdomains of 90.Tn \&.GOV . 91.It Fl h Ar host 92Use the specified host instead of the default NIC 93(whois.crsnic.net). 94Either a host name or an IP address may be specified. 95.Pp 96By default 97.Nm 98constructs the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain 99.Pq Tn TLD 100of the supplied (single) argument, and appending 101.Qq Li .whois-servers.net . 102This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected 103automatically for a large number of 104.Tn TLDs . 105.Pp 106In the event that an IP 107address is specified, the whois server will default to the American 108Registry for Internet Numbers 109.Pq Tn ARIN . 110If a query to 111.Tn ARIN 112references 113.Tn APNIC , LACNIC , 114or 115.Tn RIPE , 116that server will be queried also, provided that the 117.Fl Q 118option is not specified. 119.Pp 120If the query is not a domain name or IP address, 121.Nm 122will fall back to 123.Pa whois.crsnic.net . 124.It Fl i 125Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers 126.Pq Tn whois.networksolutions.com 127database. 128Historically, it contained network numbers and domain contact information 129for most of 130.Tn \&.COM , 131.Tn \&.NET , 132.Tn \&.ORG 133and 134.Tn \&.EDU 135domains. 136However, the registration of these domains is now done by a number of 137independent and competing registrars and this database holds no information 138on the domains registered by organizations other than Network Solutions, Inc. 139Also, note that the 140.Tn InterNIC 141database 142.Pq Pa whois.internic.net 143is no longer handled by Network Solutions, Inc. 144For details, see 145.Pa http://www.internic.net/ . 146.Pp 147(Hint: Contact information, identified by the term 148.Em handle , 149can be looked up by prefixing 150.Qq Li \&! 151or 152.Qq Li handle\ \& 153to the 154.Tn NIC 155handle in the query.) 156.It Fl l 157Use the Latin American and Caribbean IP address Regional Registry 158.Pq Tn LACNIC 159database. 160It contains network numbers used in much of Latin America and the 161Caribbean. 162.It Fl m 163Use the Route Arbiter Database 164.Pq Tn RADB 165database. 166It contains route policy specifications for a large 167number of operators' networks. 168.It Fl p Ar port 169Connect to the whois server on 170.Ar port . 171If this option is not specified, 172.Nm 173defaults to the 174.Dq whois 175port listed in 176.Pa /etc/services 177(port 43). 178.It Fl Q 179Do a quick lookup. 180This means that 181.Nm 182will not attempt to lookup the name in the authoritative whois 183server (if one is listed) nor will it contact InterNic if a lookup 184fails. 185This flag has no effect when combined with any other flag. 186.It Fl R 187Use the Russia Network Information Center 188.Pq Tn RIPN 189database. 190It contains network numbers and domain contact information 191for subdomains of 192.Tn \&.RU . 193This option is deprecated; use the 194.Fl c 195option with an argument of 196.Qq Li RU 197instead. 198.It Fl r 199Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens 200.Pq Tn RIPE 201database. 202It contains network numbers and domain contact information for Europe. 203.El 204.Pp 205The default action, unless directed otherwise with a special 206.Ar name , 207is to do a very broad search, looking for matches to 208.Ar name 209in all types of records and most fields (name, nicknames, hostname, net 210address, etc.) in the database. 211For more information as to what 212.Ar name 213operands have special meaning, and how to guide the search, use 214the special name 215.Dq help . 216.Ss Special cases 217Queries beginning with an exclamation point 218.Ql \&! 219are assumed to be 220.Tn NSI 221contact handles. 222Unless a host or domain is specified on the command line, 223.Pq Tn whois.networksolutions.com 224will be used as the 225.Nm 226database. 227.Pp 228Similarly, queries beginning with 229.Dq COCO- 230are assumed to be 231.Tn CORE 232contact handles. 233Unless a host or domain is specified on the command line, 234.Pq Tn whois.corenic.net 235will be used as the 236.Nm 237database. 238.Sh EXAMPLES 239Most types of data, such as domain names and 240.Tn IP 241addresses, can be used as arguments to 242.Nm 243without any options, and 244.Nm 245will choose the correct whois server to query. 246Some exceptions, where 247.Nm 248will not be able to handle data correctly, are detailed below. 249.Pp 250To obtain contact information about an 251administrator located in the Russian 252.Tn TLD 253domain 254.Qq Li RU , 255use the 256.Fl c 257option as shown in the following example, where 258.Ar CONTACT-ID 259is substituted with the actual contact identifier. 260.Pp 261.Dl "whois -c RU CONTACT-ID" 262.Pp 263(Note: This example is specific to the 264.Tn TLD 265.Qq Li RU , 266but other 267.Tn TLDs 268can be queried by using a similar syntax.) 269.Pp 270The following example demonstrates how to query 271a whois server using a non-standard port, where 272.Dq Li query-data 273is the query to be sent to 274.Dq Li whois.example.com 275on port 276.Dq Li rwhois 277(written numerically as 4321). 278.Pp 279.Dl "whois -h whois.example.com -p rwhois query-data" 280.Sh SEE ALSO 281.Rs 282.%A Ken Harrenstien 283.%A Vic White 284.%T NICNAME/WHOIS 285.%D 1 March 1982 286.%O RFC 812 287.Re 288.Sh HISTORY 289The 290.Nm 291command appeared in 292.Bx 4.3 . 293