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28 .\" From: @(#)whois.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
36 .Nd "Internet domain name and network number directory service"
40 .Op Fl c Ar country-code | Fl h Ar host
46 utility looks up records in the databases maintained by several
47 Network Information Centers
50 The options are as follows:
51 .Bl -tag -width indent
53 Use the American Registry for Internet Numbers
56 It contains network numbers used in those parts of the world covered neither by
57 .Tn APNIC , AfriNIC , LACNIC ,
61 (Hint: All point of contact handles in the
63 whois database end with
67 Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center
70 It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia,
71 New Zealand, and the Pacific islands.
73 Use the Network Abuse Clearinghouse database.
74 It contains addresses to which network abuse should be reported,
75 indexed by domain name.
76 .It Fl c Ar country-code
77 This is the equivalent of using the
79 option with an argument of
80 .Qq Ar country-code Ns Li .whois-servers.net .
82 Use the African Network Information Centre
85 It contains network numbers used in Africa and the islands of the
88 Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of
89 contact for subdomains of
92 Use the specified host instead of the default variant.
93 Either a host name or an IP address may be specified.
97 constructs the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain
99 of the supplied (single) argument, and appending
100 .Qq Li .whois-servers.net .
101 This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected
102 automatically for a large number of
105 In the event that an IP
106 address is specified, the whois server will default to the American
107 Registry for Internet Numbers
112 .Tn APNIC , AfriNIC , LACNIC ,
115 that server will be queried also, provided that the
117 option is not specified.
119 If the query is not a domain name or IP address,
122 .Pa whois.crsnic.net .
124 Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers
125 .Pq Pa whois.networksolutions.com
127 It contains network numbers and domain contact information for most of
128 .Pa .COM , .NET , .ORG
134 The registration of these domains is now done by a number of
135 independent and competing registrars and this database holds no information
136 on the domains registered by organizations other than Network Solutions, Inc.
140 .Pq Pa whois.internic.net
141 is no longer handled by Network Solutions, Inc.
143 .Pa http://www.internic.net/ .
145 (Hint: Contact information, identified by the term
147 can be looked up by prefixing
151 handle in the query.)
153 Use the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
156 It contains network information for top-level domains.
158 Use the National Internet Development Agency of Korea's
161 It contains network numbers and domain contact information
164 Use the Latin American and Caribbean IP address Regional Registry
167 It contains network numbers used in much of Latin America and the
170 Use the Route Arbiter Database
173 It contains route policy specifications for a large
174 number of operators' networks.
176 Connect to the whois server on
178 If this option is not specified,
185 will not attempt to lookup the name in the authoritative whois
186 server (if one is listed).
187 This option has no effect when combined with any other options.
189 Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens
192 It contains network numbers and domain contact information
195 Use the Russia Network Information Center
198 It contains network numbers and domain contact information
201 This option is deprecated; use the
203 option with an argument of
208 The operands specified to
210 are treated independently and may be used
211 as queries on different whois servers.
215 Most types of data, such as domain names and
217 addresses, can be used as arguments to
219 without any options, and
221 will choose the correct whois server to query.
222 Some exceptions, where
224 will not be able to handle data correctly, are detailed below.
226 To obtain contact information about an
227 administrator located in the Russian
233 option as shown in the following example, where
235 is substituted with the actual contact identifier.
237 .Dl "whois -c RU CONTACT-ID"
239 (Note: This example is specific to the
244 can be queried by using a similar syntax.)
246 The following example demonstrates how to query
247 a whois server using a non-standard port, where
249 is the query to be sent to
250 .Dq Li whois.example.com
253 (written numerically as 4321).
255 .Dl "whois -h whois.example.com -p rwhois query-data"