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32 .\" From: @(#)whois.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
40 .Nd "Internet domain name and network number directory service"
44 .Op Fl c Ar country-code | Fl h Ar host
50 utility looks up records in the databases maintained by several
51 Network Information Centers
54 The options are as follows:
55 .Bl -tag -width indent
57 Use the American Registry for Internet Numbers
60 It contains network numbers used in those parts of the world covered neither by
61 .Tn APNIC , AfriNIC , LACNIC ,
65 (Hint: All point of contact handles in the
67 whois database end with
71 Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center
74 It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia,
75 New Zealand, and the Pacific islands.
77 Use the Network Abuse Clearinghouse database.
78 It contains addresses to which network abuse should be reported,
79 indexed by domain name.
80 .It Fl c Ar country-code
81 This is the equivalent of using the
83 option with an argument of
84 .Qq Ar country-code Ns Li .whois-servers.net .
86 Use the African Network Information Centre
89 It contains network numbers used in Africa and the islands of the
92 Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of
93 contact for subdomains of
96 Use the specified host instead of the default variant.
97 Either a host name or an IP address may be specified.
101 constructs the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain
103 of the supplied (single) argument, and appending
104 .Qq Li .whois-servers.net .
105 This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected
106 automatically for a large number of
109 In the event that an IP
110 address is specified, the whois server will default to the American
111 Registry for Internet Numbers
116 .Tn APNIC , AfriNIC , LACNIC ,
119 that server will be queried also, provided that the
121 option is not specified.
123 If the query is not a domain name or IP address,
126 .Pa whois.crsnic.net .
128 Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers
129 .Pq Pa whois.networksolutions.com
131 It contains network numbers and domain contact information for most of
132 .Pa .COM , .NET , .ORG
138 The registration of these domains is now done by a number of
139 independent and competing registrars and this database holds no information
140 on the domains registered by organizations other than Network Solutions, Inc.
144 .Pq Pa whois.internic.net
145 is no longer handled by Network Solutions, Inc.
147 .Pa http://www.internic.net/ .
149 (Hint: Contact information, identified by the term
151 can be looked up by prefixing
155 handle in the query.)
157 Use the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
160 It contains network information for top-level domains.
162 Use the National Internet Development Agency of Korea's
165 It contains network numbers and domain contact information
168 Use the Latin American and Caribbean IP address Regional Registry
171 It contains network numbers used in much of Latin America and the
174 Use the Route Arbiter Database
177 It contains route policy specifications for a large
178 number of operators' networks.
180 Connect to the whois server on
182 If this option is not specified,
189 will not attempt to lookup the name in the authoritative whois
190 server (if one is listed).
191 This option has no effect when combined with any other options.
193 Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens
196 It contains network numbers and domain contact information
199 Use the Russia Network Information Center
202 It contains network numbers and domain contact information
205 This option is deprecated; use the
207 option with an argument of
211 The operands specified to
213 are treated independently and may be used
214 as queries on different whois servers.
219 Most types of data, such as domain names and
221 addresses, can be used as arguments to
223 without any options, and
225 will choose the correct whois server to query.
226 Some exceptions, where
228 will not be able to handle data correctly, are detailed below.
230 To obtain contact information about an
231 administrator located in the Russian
237 option as shown in the following example, where
239 is substituted with the actual contact identifier.
241 .Dl "whois -c RU CONTACT-ID"
243 (Note: This example is specific to the
248 can be queried by using a similar syntax.)
250 The following example demonstrates how to query
251 a whois server using a non-standard port, where
253 is the query to be sent to
254 .Dq Li whois.example.com
257 (written numerically as 4321).
259 .Dl "whois -h whois.example.com -p rwhois query-data"