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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 1.3 2004/07/23 06:29:27 hmp 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 aAbdgiIlmQrR6 45.Op Fl c Ar country-code | Fl h Ar host 46.Op Fl p Ar port 47.Ar name ... 48.Sh DESCRIPTION 49The 50.Nm 51utility looks up records in the databases maintained by several 52Network Information Centers 53.Pq Tn NICs . 54.Pp 55The options are as follows: 56.Bl -tag -width indent 57.It Fl a 58Use the American Registry for Internet Numbers 59.Pq Tn ARIN 60database. 61It contains network numbers used in those parts of the world covered neither by 62.Tn APNIC 63nor by 64.Tn RIPE . 65.Pp 66(Hint: All point of contact handles in the 67.Tn ARIN 68whois database end with 69.Qq Li -ARIN . ) 70.Pp 71.It Fl A 72Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center 73.Pq Tn APNIC 74database. 75It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia, 76New Zealand, and the Pacific islands. 77.It Fl b 78Use the Network Abuse Clearinghouse database. 79It contains addresses to which network abuse should be reported, 80indexed by domain name. 81.It Fl c Ar country-code 82This is the equivalent of using the 83.Fl h 84option with an argument of 85.Qq Ar country-code Ns Li .whois-servers.net . 86.It Fl d 87Use the US Department of Defense 88database. 89It contains points of contact for subdomains of 90.Pa .MIL . 91.It Fl g 92Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of 93contact for subdomains of 94.Pa .GOV . 95.It Fl h Ar host 96Use the specified host instead of the default variant. 97Either a host name or an IP address may be specified. 98.Pp 99By default 100.Nm 101constructs the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain 102.Pq Tn TLD 103of the supplied (single) argument, and appending 104.Qq Li .whois-servers.net . 105This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected 106automatically for a large number of 107.Tn TLDs . 108.Pp 109In the event that an IP 110address is specified, the whois server will default to the American 111Registry for Internet Numbers 112.Pq Tn ARIN . 113If a query to 114.Tn ARIN 115references 116.Tn APNIC , LACNIC , 117or 118.Tn RIPE , 119that server will be queried also, provided that the 120.Fl Q 121option is not specified. 122.Pp 123If the query is not a domain name or IP address, 124.Nm 125will fall back to 126.Pa whois.crsnic.net . 127.It Fl i 128Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers 129.Pq Pa whois.networksolutions.com 130database. 131It contains network numbers and domain contact information for most of 132.Pa .COM , .NET , .ORG 133and 134.Pa .EDU 135domains. 136.Pp 137.Sy NOTE ! 138The registration of these domains is now done by a number of 139independent and competing registrars and this database holds no information 140on the domains registered by organizations other than Network Solutions, Inc. 141Also, note that the 142.Tn InterNIC 143database 144.Pq Pa whois.internic.net 145is no longer handled by Network Solutions, Inc. 146For details, see 147.Pa http://www.internic.net/ . 148.Pp 149(Hint: Contact information, identified by the term 150.Em handle , 151can be looked up by prefixing 152.Qq Li "handle " 153to the 154.Tn NIC 155handle in the query.) 156.It Fl I 157Use the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority 158.Pq Tn IANA 159database. 160It contains network information for top-level domains. 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