summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/usr.bin/whois/whois.1
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorTodd C. Miller <millert@cvs.openbsd.org>2003-01-07 17:24:09 +0000
committerTodd C. Miller <millert@cvs.openbsd.org>2003-01-07 17:24:09 +0000
commit7249ef47e767700249af42db00865e778cfaaaf1 (patch)
treeeeb7c76c9ea75b3cce4a94a0ab8a6f341deaa803 /usr.bin/whois/whois.1
parent0beb98b8260f5dbe0cefb85d10761458180dcea0 (diff)
Whois updates, mostly adapted from FreeBSD
o make "whois -i" go to whois.networksolutions.com o add "-p port" option (renamed old -p to -A) o add support for recursive lookups of IP numbers o remove WHOIS_INIC_FALLBACK, it is no longer useful o man page updates
Diffstat (limited to 'usr.bin/whois/whois.1')
-rw-r--r--usr.bin/whois/whois.1169
1 files changed, 126 insertions, 43 deletions
diff --git a/usr.bin/whois/whois.1 b/usr.bin/whois/whois.1
index afde6906654..0ada003ca7e 100644
--- a/usr.bin/whois/whois.1
+++ b/usr.bin/whois/whois.1
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-.\" $OpenBSD: whois.1,v 1.18 2002/12/19 20:37:24 millert Exp $
+.\" $OpenBSD: whois.1,v 1.19 2003/01/07 17:24:08 millert Exp $
.\" $NetBSD: whois.1,v 1.5 1995/08/31 21:51:32 jtc Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1985, 1990, 1993
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
.\"
.\" @(#)whois.1 8.2 (Berkeley) 6/20/94
.\"
-.Dd June 20, 1994
+.Dd January 6, 2003
.Dt WHOIS 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
@@ -42,12 +42,16 @@
.Nd Internet domain name and network number directory service
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm whois
-.Op Fl adgilmpqQrR6
-.Op Fl c Ar country-code | Fl h Ar host
+.Op Fl aAdgilmQrR6
+.Oo
+.Fl c Ar country-code | Fl h Ar host
+.Oc
+.Op Fl p Ar port
.Ar name Op Ar ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
+The
.Nm
-looks up records in the databases maintained by several
+utility looks up records in the databases maintained by several
Network Information Centers
.Pq Tn NICs Ns .
.Pp
@@ -59,17 +63,27 @@ Use the American Registry for Internet Numbers
database.
It contains network numbers used in those parts of the world
covered neither by
-.Tn APNIC nor by
+.Tn APNIC
+nor by
.Tn RIPE .
+.Pp
+(Hint: All point of contact handles in the
+.Tn ARIN
+whois database end with
+.Qq Li -ARIN . )
+.It Fl A
+Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center
+.Pq Tn APNIC
+database.
+It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia,
+New Zealand, and the Pacific islands.
.It Fl c Ar country-code
This is the equivalent of using the
.Fl h
option with an argument of
.Qq Ar country-code Ns Li .whois-servers.net .
.It Fl d
-Use the (US Military) Defense Data Network
-.Pq Tn DDN
-database.
+Use the US Department of Defense database.
It contains points of contact for subdomains of
.Tn \&.MIL Ns .
.It Fl g
@@ -80,51 +94,89 @@ contact for subdomains of
Use the specified host instead of the default NIC
(whois.crsnic.net).
Either a host name or an IP address may be specified.
+.Pp
+By default
+.Nm
+constructs the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain
+.Pq Tn TLD
+of the supplied (single) argument, and appending
+.Qq Li .whois-servers.net .
+This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected
+automatically for a large number of
+.Tn TLDs .
+.Pp
+In the event that an IP
+address is specified, the whois server will default to the American
+Registry for Internet Numbers
+.Pq Tn ARIN .
+If a query to
+.Tn ARIN
+references
+.Tn APNIC , LACNIC ,
+or
+.Tn RIPE ,
+that server will be queried also, provided that the
+.Fl Q
+option is not specified.
+.Pp
+If the query is not a domain name or IP address,
+.Nm
+will fall back to
+.Pa whois.crsnic.net .
.It Fl i
Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers
-.Pq Tn InterNIC
+.Pq Tn whois.networksolutions.com
database.
-It contains network numbers and domain contact information for most of
+Historically, it contained network numbers and domain contact information
+for most of
.Tn \&.COM ,
.Tn \&.NET ,
.Tn \&.ORG
and
.Tn \&.EDU
domains.
+However, the registration of these domains is now done by a number of
+independent and competing registrars and this database holds no information
+on the domains registered by organizations other than Network Solutions, Inc.
+Also, note that the
+.Tn InterNIC
+database
+.Pq Pa whois.internic.net
+is no longer handled by Network Solutions, Inc.
+For details, see
+.Pa http://www.internic.net/ .
+.Pp
+(Hint: Contact information, identified by the term
+.Em handle ,
+can be looked up by prefixing
+.Qq Li "!"
+or
+.Qq Li "handle\ "
+to the
+.Tn NIC
+handle in the query.)
.It Fl l
-Use the Latin America and Caribbean Network Information Center
+Use the Latin American and Caribbean IP address Regional Registry
.Pq Tn LACNIC
database.
+It contains network numbers used in much of Latin America and the
+Caribbean.
.It Fl m
Use the Route Arbiter Database
.Pq Tn RADB
database.
It contains route policy specifications for a large
number of operators' networks.
-.It Fl p
-Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center
-.Pq Tn APNIC
-database.
-It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia,
-New Zealand, and the Pacific islands.
-.It Fl q
-Construct the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain
-.Pq Tn TLD
-of the supplied (single) argument, and appending ".whois-servers.net".
-This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected
-automatically for a large number of TLDs, i.e., all of the following will
-.Ql just work :
-.Pp
-.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
-$ whois -q patho.gen.nz
-$ whois -q microsoft.com
-$ whois -q nasa.gov
-$ whois -q nic.fr
-$ whois -q demon.co.uk
-.Ed
-.Pp
-This option is now the default.
-.Pp
+.It Fl p Ar port
+Connect to the whois server on
+.Ar port .
+If this option is not specified,
+.Nm
+defaults to the
+.Dq whois
+port listed in
+.Pa /etc/services
+(port 43).
.It Fl Q
Do a quick lookup.
This means that
@@ -145,6 +197,11 @@ database.
It contains network numbers and domain contact information
for subdomains of
.Tn \&.RU Ns .
+This option is deprecated; use the
+.Fl c
+option with an argument of
+.Qq Li RU
+instead.
.It Fl 6
Use the IPv6 Resource Center
.Pq Tn 6bone
@@ -152,13 +209,6 @@ database.
It contains network names and addresses for the IPv6 network.
.El
.Pp
-The operands specified to
-.Nm
-are concatenated together (separated by whitespace) and presented to
-the
-.Nm
-server.
-.Pp
The default action, unless directed otherwise with a special
.Ar name ,
is to do a very broad search, looking for matches to
@@ -170,6 +220,28 @@ For more information as to what
operands have special meaning, and how to guide the search, use
the special name
.Dq help .
+.Ss Special cases
+Queries beginning with an exclamation point
+.Ql !
+are assumed to be
+.Tn NSI
+contact handles.
+Unless a host or domain is specified on the command line,
+.Pq Tn whois.networksolutions.com
+will be used as the
+.Nm
+database.
+.Pp
+Similarly, queries beginning with
+.Dq COCO-
+are assumed to be
+.Tn CORE
+contact handles.
+Unless a host or domain is specified on the command line,
+.Pq Tn whois.corenic.net
+will be used as the
+.Nm
+database.
.Sh EXAMPLES
Most types of data, such as domain names and
.Tn IP
@@ -210,6 +282,17 @@ option, which directs the query to
.Tn 6bone .
.Pp
.Dl "whois -6 IPv6-IP-Address"
+.Pp
+The following example demonstrates how to query
+a whois server using a non-standard port, where
+.Dq Li query-data
+is the query to be sent to
+.Dq Li whois.example.com
+on port
+.Dq Li rwhois
+(written numerically as 4321).
+.Pp
+.Dl "whois -h whois.example.com -p rwhois query-data"
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Rs
.%A Ken Harrenstien