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32 .\" From: @(#)whois.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
40 .Nd "Internet domain name and network number directory service"
43 .Op Fl aAbdfgiIklmQrR6
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 US Department of Defense
88 It contains points of contact for subdomains of
91 Use the African Network Information Centre
94 It contains network numbers used in Africa and the islands of the
97 Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of
98 contact for subdomains of
101 Use the specified host instead of the default variant.
102 Either a host name or an IP address may be specified.
106 constructs the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain
108 of the supplied (single) argument, and appending
109 .Qq Li .whois-servers.net .
110 This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected
111 automatically for a large number of
114 In the event that an IP
115 address is specified, the whois server will default to the American
116 Registry for Internet Numbers
121 .Tn APNIC , AfriNIC , LACNIC ,
124 that server will be queried also, provided that the
126 option is not specified.
128 If the query is not a domain name or IP address,
131 .Pa whois.crsnic.net .
133 Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers
134 .Pq Pa whois.networksolutions.com
136 It contains network numbers and domain contact information for most of
137 .Pa .COM , .NET , .ORG
143 The registration of these domains is now done by a number of
144 independent and competing registrars and this database holds no information
145 on the domains registered by organizations other than Network Solutions, Inc.
149 .Pq Pa whois.internic.net
150 is no longer handled by Network Solutions, Inc.
152 .Pa http://www.internic.net/ .
154 (Hint: Contact information, identified by the term
156 can be looked up by prefixing
160 handle in the query.)
162 Use the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
165 It contains network information for top-level domains.
167 Use the National Internet Development Agency of Korea's
170 It contains network numbers and domain contact information
173 Use the Latin American and Caribbean IP address Regional Registry
176 It contains network numbers used in much of Latin America and the
179 Use the Route Arbiter Database
182 It contains route policy specifications for a large
183 number of operators' networks.
185 Connect to the whois server on
187 If this option is not specified,
194 will not attempt to lookup the name in the authoritative whois
195 server (if one is listed).
196 This option has no effect when combined with any other options.
198 Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens
201 It contains network numbers and domain contact information
204 Use the Russia Network Information Center
207 It contains network numbers and domain contact information
210 This option is deprecated; use the
212 option with an argument of
216 Use the IPv6 Resource Center
219 It contains network names and addresses for the IPv6 network.
222 The operands specified to
224 are treated independently and may be used
225 as queries on different whois servers.
227 Most types of data, such as domain names and
229 addresses, can be used as arguments to
231 without any options, and
233 will choose the correct whois server to query.
234 Some exceptions, where
236 will not be able to handle data correctly, are detailed below.
238 To obtain contact information about an
239 administrator located in the Russian
245 option as shown in the following example, where
247 is substituted with the actual contact identifier.
249 .Dl "whois -c RU CONTACT-ID"
251 (Note: This example is specific to the
256 can be queried by using a similar syntax.)
258 The following example demonstrates how to obtain information about an
260 address or hostname using the
262 option, which directs the query to
265 .Dl "whois -6 IPv6-IP-Address"
267 The following example demonstrates how to query
268 a whois server using a non-standard port, where
270 is the query to be sent to
271 .Dq Li whois.example.com
274 (written numerically as 4321).
276 .Dl "whois -h whois.example.com -p rwhois query-data"