1.\" $OpenBSD: whois.1,v 1.32 2013/03/05 16:09:10 sthen 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 5 2013 $ 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 AadgilmPQRr 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.Lk 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 169Use the PeeringDB database of AS numbers. 170It contains details about presence at internet peering points 171for many network operators. 172.It Fl p Ar port 173Connect to the whois server on 174.Ar port . 175If this option is not specified, 176.Nm 177defaults to the 178.Dq whois 179port listed in 180.Pa /etc/services 181(port 43). 182.It Fl Q 183Do a quick lookup. 184This means that 185.Nm 186will not attempt to lookup the name in the authoritative whois 187server (if one is listed) nor will it contact InterNic if a lookup 188fails. 189This flag has no effect when combined with any other flag. 190.It Fl R 191Use the Russia Network Information Center 192.Pq Tn RIPN 193database. 194It contains network numbers and domain contact information 195for subdomains of 196.Tn \&.RU . 197This option is deprecated; use the 198.Fl c 199option with an argument of 200.Qq Li RU 201instead. 202.It Fl r 203Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens 204.Pq Tn RIPE 205database. 206It contains network numbers and domain contact information for Europe. 207.El 208.Pp 209The default action, unless directed otherwise with a special 210.Ar name , 211is to do a very broad search, looking for matches to 212.Ar name 213in all types of records and most fields (name, nicknames, hostname, net 214address, etc.) in the database. 215For more information as to what 216.Ar name 217operands have special meaning, and how to guide the search, use 218the special name 219.Dq help . 220.Ss Special cases 221Queries beginning with an exclamation point 222.Ql \&! 223are assumed to be 224.Tn NSI 225contact handles. 226Unless a host or domain is specified on the command line, 227.Pq Tn whois.networksolutions.com 228will be used as the 229.Nm 230database. 231.Pp 232Similarly, queries beginning with 233.Dq COCO- 234are assumed to be 235.Tn CORE 236contact handles. 237Unless a host or domain is specified on the command line, 238.Pq Tn whois.corenic.net 239will be used as the 240.Nm 241database. 242.Sh EXAMPLES 243Most types of data, such as domain names and 244.Tn IP 245addresses, can be used as arguments to 246.Nm 247without any options, and 248.Nm 249will choose the correct whois server to query. 250Some exceptions, where 251.Nm 252will not be able to handle data correctly, are detailed below. 253.Pp 254To obtain contact information about an 255administrator located in the Russian 256.Tn TLD 257domain 258.Qq Li RU , 259use the 260.Fl c 261option as shown in the following example, where 262.Ar CONTACT-ID 263is substituted with the actual contact identifier. 264.Pp 265.Dl "whois -c RU CONTACT-ID" 266.Pp 267(Note: This example is specific to the 268.Tn TLD 269.Qq Li RU , 270but other 271.Tn TLDs 272can be queried by using a similar syntax.) 273.Pp 274The following example demonstrates how to query 275a whois server using a non-standard port, where 276.Dq Li query-data 277is the query to be sent to 278.Dq Li whois.example.com 279on port 280.Dq Li rwhois 281(written numerically as 4321). 282.Pp 283.Dl "whois -h whois.example.com -p rwhois query-data" 284.Sh STANDARDS 285.Rs 286.%A K. Harrenstien 287.%A M. Stahl 288.%A E. Feinler 289.%D October 1985 290.%R RFC 954 291.%T NICNAME/WHOIS 292.Re 293.Pp 294.Rs 295.%A L. Daigle 296.%D September 2004 297.%R RFC 3912 298.%T WHOIS Protocol Specification 299.Re 300.Sh HISTORY 301The 302.Nm 303command appeared in 304.Bx 4.3 . 305