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.\" $OpenBSD: whois.1,v 1.6 1999/10/03 00:42:34 deraadt Exp $
.\" $NetBSD: whois.1,v 1.5 1995/08/31 21:51:32 jtc Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1985, 1990, 1993
.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
.\" must display the following acknowledgement:
.\" This product includes software developed by the University of
.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors.
.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
.\" without specific prior written permission.
.\"
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
.\" @(#)whois.1 8.2 (Berkeley) 6/20/94
.\"
.Dd June 20, 1994
.Dt WHOIS 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm whois
.Nd Internet domain name and network number directory service
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm whois
.Op Fl adpr
.Op Fl h Ar host
.Ar name Op Ar ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm whois
looks up records in the databases maintained by several
Network Information Centers
.Pq Tn NICs Ns .
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl a
Use the American Registry for Internet Numbers
.Pq Tn ARIN
database. It contains network numbers used in those parts of the world
covered neither by
.Tn APNIC nor by
.Tn RIPE .
.It Fl d
Use the (US Military) Defense Data Network
.Pq Tn DDN
database. It contains points of contact for subdomains of
.Tn \&.MIL Ns .
.It Fl h Ar host
Use the specified host instead of the default NIC
(whois.internic.net).
Either a host name or an IP address may be specified.
.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.
.It Fl r
Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens
.Pq Tn RIPE
database. It contains network numbers and domain contact information
for Europe.
.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 .
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