.\"	$OpenBSD: whois.1,v 1.2 1996/06/26 05:43:02 deraadt Exp $
.\"	$NetBSD: whois.1,v 1.5 1995/08/31 21:51:32 jtc Exp $
.\"
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.\"     @(#)whois.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 6/20/94
.\"
.Dd June 20, 1994
.Dt WHOIS 1
.Os BSD 4.3
.Sh NAME
.Nm whois
.Nd Internet user name directory service
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm whois
.Op Fl h Ar hostname
.Ar name ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm Whois
looks up records in the Network Information Center
.Pq Tn NIC
database.
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl h
Use the specified host instead of the default NIC (whois.internic.net).
.El
.Pp
The operands specified to
.Nm whois
are concatenated together (separated by white-space) and presented to
the
.Nm whois
server.
.Pp
The default action, unless directed otherwise with a special
.Ar name ,
is to do a very broad search, looking for matches to
.Ar name
in all types of records and most fields (name, nicknames, hostname, net
address, etc.) in the database.
For more information as to what
.Ar name
operands have special meaning, and how to guide the search, use
the special name
.Dq Ar help .
.Sh SEE ALSO
RFC 812: Nicname/Whois
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm whois
command appeared in
.Bx 4.3 .