===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsrepo/anoncvs/cvs/src/usr.bin/whois/whois.1,v
retrieving revision 1.18
retrieving revision 1.19
diff -u -r1.18 -r1.19
--- src/usr.bin/whois/whois.1	2002/12/19 20:37:24	1.18
+++ src/usr.bin/whois/whois.1	2003/01/07 17:24:08	1.19
@@ -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 @@
 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 @@
 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 @@
 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 @@
 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 @@
 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 @@
 .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