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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.\" 31.Dd January 9, 2005 32.Dt WHOIS 1 33.Os 34.Sh NAME 35.Nm whois 36.Nd "Internet domain name and network number directory service" 37.Sh SYNOPSIS 38.Nm 39.Op Fl aAbdgiIklmQrR6 40.Op Fl c Ar country-code | Fl h Ar host 41.Op Fl p Ar port 42.Ar name ... 43.Sh DESCRIPTION 44The 45.Nm 46utility looks up records in the databases maintained by several 47Network Information Centers 48.Pq Tn NICs . 49.Pp 50The options are as follows: 51.Bl -tag -width indent 52.It Fl a 53Use the American Registry for Internet Numbers 54.Pq Tn ARIN 55database. 56It contains network numbers used in those parts of the world covered neither by 57.Tn APNIC 58nor by 59.Tn RIPE . 60.Pp 61(Hint: All point of contact handles in the 62.Tn ARIN 63whois database end with 64.Qq Li -ARIN . ) 65.It Fl A 66Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center 67.Pq Tn APNIC 68database. 69It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia, 70New Zealand, and the Pacific islands. 71.It Fl b 72Use the Network Abuse Clearinghouse database. 73It contains addresses to which network abuse should be reported, 74indexed by domain name. 75.It Fl c Ar country-code 76This is the equivalent of using the 77.Fl h 78option with an argument of 79.Qq Ar country-code Ns Li .whois-servers.net . 80.It Fl d 81Use the US Department of Defense 82database. 83It contains points of contact for subdomains of 84.Pa .MIL . 85.It Fl g 86Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of 87contact for subdomains of 88.Pa .GOV . 89.It Fl h Ar host 90Use the specified host instead of the default variant. 91Either a host name or an IP address may be specified. 92.Pp 93By default 94.Nm 95constructs the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain 96.Pq Tn TLD 97of the supplied (single) argument, and appending 98.Qq Li .whois-servers.net . 99This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected 100automatically for a large number of 101.Tn TLDs . 102.Pp 103In the event that an IP 104address is specified, the whois server will default to the American 105Registry for Internet Numbers 106.Pq Tn ARIN . 107If a query to 108.Tn ARIN 109references 110.Tn APNIC , LACNIC , 111or 112.Tn RIPE , 113that server will be queried also, provided that the 114.Fl Q 115option is not specified. 116.Pp 117If the query is not a domain name or IP address, 118.Nm 119will fall back to 120.Pa whois.crsnic.net . 121.It Fl i 122Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers 123.Pq Pa whois.networksolutions.com 124database. 125It contains network numbers and domain contact information for most of 126.Pa .COM , .NET , .ORG 127and 128.Pa .EDU 129domains. 130.Pp 131.Sy NOTE ! 132The registration of these domains is now done by a number of 133independent and competing registrars and this database holds no information 134on the domains registered by organizations other than Network Solutions, Inc. 135Also, note that the 136.Tn InterNIC 137database 138.Pq Pa whois.internic.net 139is no longer handled by Network Solutions, Inc. 140For details, see 141.Pa http://www.internic.net/ . 142.Pp 143(Hint: Contact information, identified by the term 144.Em handle , 145can be looked up by prefixing 146.Qq Li "handle " 147to the 148.Tn NIC 149handle in the query.) 150.It Fl I 151Use the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority 152.Pq Tn IANA 153database. 154It contains network information for top-level domains. 155.It Fl k 156Use the National Internet Development Agency of Korea's 157.Pq Tn KRNIC 158database. 159It contains network numbers and domain contact information 160for Korea. 161.It Fl l 162Use the Latin American and Caribbean IP address Regional Registry 163.Pq Tn LACNIC 164database. 165It contains network numbers used in much of Latin America and the 166Caribbean. 167.It Fl m 168Use the Route Arbiter Database 169.Pq Tn RADB 170database. 171It contains route policy specifications for a large 172number of operators' networks. 173.It Fl p Ar port 174Connect to the whois server on 175.Ar port . 176If this option is not specified, 177.Nm 178defaults to port 43. 179.It Fl Q 180Do a quick lookup. 181This means that 182.Nm 183will not attempt to lookup the name in the authoritative whois 184server (if one is listed). 185This option has no effect when combined with any other options. 186.It Fl r 187Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens 188.Pq Tn RIPE 189database. 190It contains network numbers and domain contact information 191for Europe. 192.It Fl R 193Use the Russia Network Information Center 194.Pq Tn RIPN 195database. 196It contains network numbers and domain contact information 197for subdomains of 198.Pa .RU . 199This option is deprecated; use the 200.Fl c 201option with an argument of 202.Qq Li RU 203instead. 204.It Fl 6 205Use the IPv6 Resource Center 206.Pq Tn 6bone 207database. 208It contains network names and addresses for the IPv6 network. 209.El 210.Pp 211The operands specified to 212.Nm 213are treated independently and may be used 214as queries on different whois servers. 215.Sh EXAMPLES 216Most types of data, such as domain names and 217.Tn IP 218addresses, can be used as arguments to 219.Nm 220without any options, and 221.Nm 222will choose the correct whois server to query. 223Some exceptions, where 224.Nm 225will not be able to handle data correctly, are detailed below. 226.Pp 227To obtain contact information about an 228administrator located in the Russian 229.Tn TLD 230domain 231.Qq Li RU , 232use the 233.Fl c 234option as shown in the following example, where 235.Ar CONTACT-ID 236is substituted with the actual contact identifier. 237.Pp 238.Dl "whois -c RU CONTACT-ID" 239.Pp 240(Note: This example is specific to the 241.Tn TLD 242.Qq Li RU , 243but other 244.Tn TLDs 245can be queried by using a similar syntax.) 246.Pp 247The following example demonstrates how to obtain information about an 248.Tn IPv6 249address or hostname using the 250.Fl 6 251option, which directs the query to 252.Tn 6bone . 253.Pp 254.Dl "whois -6 IPv6-IP-Address" 255.Pp 256The following example demonstrates how to query 257a whois server using a non-standard port, where 258.Dq Li query-data 259is the query to be sent to 260.Dq Li whois.example.com 261on port 262.Dq Li rwhois 263(written numerically as 4321). 264.Pp 265.Dl "whois -h whois.example.com -p rwhois query-data" 266.Sh SEE ALSO 267.Rs 268.%A Ken Harrenstien 269.%A Vic White 270.%T NICNAME/WHOIS 271.%D 1 March 1982 272.%O RFC 812 273.Re 274.Sh HISTORY 275The 276.Nm 277command appeared in 278.Bx 4.3 . 279