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33 .Nd "Internet domain name and network number directory service"
36 .Op Fl aAbfgiIklmPQrRS
37 .Op Fl c Ar TLD | Fl h Ar host
44 utility looks up records in the databases maintained by several
45 Network Information Centers
50 starts by querying the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) whois server,
51 and follows referrals to whois servers
52 that have more specific details about the query
54 The IANA whois server knows about
55 IP address and AS numbers
56 as well as domain names.
58 There are a few special cases where referrals do not work, so
60 goes directly to the appropriate server.
61 These include point-of-contact handles for ARIN,
64 and domain names under
67 The options are as follows:
68 .Bl -tag -width indent
70 Use the American Registry for Internet Numbers
73 It contains network numbers used in those parts of the world covered neither by
74 .Tn APNIC , AfriNIC , LACNIC ,
77 The query syntax is documented at
78 .Pa https://www.arin.net/resources/whoisrws/whois_api.html#nicname
80 Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center
83 It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia,
84 New Zealand, and the Pacific islands.
85 Get query syntax documentation using
88 Use the Network Abuse Clearinghouse database.
89 It contains addresses to which network abuse should be reported,
90 indexed by domain name.
92 This is the equivalent of using the
94 option with an argument of
95 .Qq Ar TLD Ns Li .whois-servers.net .
96 This can be helpful for locating country-class TLD whois servers.
98 Use the African Network Information Centre
101 It contains network numbers used in Africa and the islands of the
102 western Indian Ocean.
103 Get query syntax documentation using
106 Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of
107 contact for subdomains of
110 Use the specified host instead of the default.
111 Either a host name or an IP address may be specified.
113 Use the traditional Network Information Center (InterNIC)
114 .Pq Pa whois.internic.net
116 This now contains only registrations for domain names under
120 You can specify the type of object to search for like
121 .Ic whois -i ' Ns Ar type Ar name Ns Ic '
125 .Nm domain , nameserver , registrar .
132 Use the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
136 Use the National Internet Development Agency of Korea's
139 It contains network numbers and domain contact information
142 Use the Latin American and Caribbean IP address Regional Registry
145 It contains network numbers used in much of Latin America and the
148 Use the Route Arbiter Database
151 It contains route policy specifications for a large
152 number of operators' networks.
154 Connect to the whois server on
156 If this option is not specified,
160 Use the PeeringDB database of AS numbers.
161 It contains details about presence at internet peering points
162 for many network operators.
166 will not attempt to follow referrals to other whois servers.
167 This is the default if a server is explicitly specified
168 using one of the other options or in an environment variable.
173 Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens
176 It contains network numbers and domain contact information
178 Get query syntax documentation using
181 Do a recursive lookup;
183 will attempt to follow referrals to other whois servers.
184 This is the default if no server is explicitly specified.
191 adjusts simple queries (without spaces) to produce more useful output
192 from certain whois servers,
193 and it suppresses some uninformative output.
198 sends the query and prints the output verbatim.
201 The operands specified to
203 are treated independently and may be used
204 as queries on different whois servers.
206 .Bl -tag -width WHOIS_SERVER
208 The primary default whois server.
213 environment variable.
215 The secondary default whois server.
224 To obtain contact information about an
225 administrator located in the Russian
231 option as shown in the following example, where
233 is substituted with the actual contact identifier.
235 .Dl Ic whois -c RU CONTACT-ID
237 (Note: This example is specific to the
242 can be queried by using a similar syntax.)
244 The following example demonstrates how to query
245 a whois server using a non-standard port, where
247 is the query to be sent to
248 .Dq Li whois.example.com
251 (written numerically as 4321).
253 .Dl Ic whois -h whois.example.com -p rwhois query-data
255 Some whois servers support complex queries
256 with dash-letter options.
261 command options from whois server query options.
262 A query containing spaces must be quoted as one
266 The following example asks the RIPE whois server
267 to return a brief description of its
271 .Dl Ic whois -r -- '-t domain'
286 .%T WHOIS Protocol Specification