1.\" Copyright (c) 1985, 1990, 1993 2.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" %sccs.include.redist.roff% 5.\" 6.\" @(#)whois.1 8.2 (Berkeley) 06/20/94 7.\" 8.Dd 9.Dt WHOIS 1 10.Os BSD 4.3 11.Sh NAME 12.Nm whois 13.Nd Internet user name directory service 14.Sh SYNOPSIS 15.Nm whois 16.Op Fl h Ar hostname 17.Ar name ... 18.Sh DESCRIPTION 19.Nm Whois 20looks up records in the Network Information Center 21.Pq Tn NIC 22database. 23.Pp 24The options are as follows: 25.Bl -tag -width Ds 26.It Fl h 27Use the specified host instead of the default NIC (whois.internic.net). 28.El 29.Pp 30The operands specified to 31.Nm whois 32are concatenated together (separated by white-space) and presented to 33the 34.Nm whois 35server. 36.Pp 37The default action, unless directed otherwise with a special 38.Ar name , 39is to do a very broad search, looking for matches to 40.Ar name 41in all types of records and most fields (name, nicknames, hostname, net 42address, etc.) in the database. 43For more information as to what 44.Ar name 45operands have special meaning, and how to guide the search, use 46the special name 47.Dq Ar help . 48.Sh SEE ALSO 49RFC 812: Nicname/Whois 50.Sh HISTORY 51The 52.Nm whois 53command appeared in 54.Bx 4.3 . 55