Annotation of src/usr.bin/whois/whois.1, Revision 1.10
1.10 ! deraadt 1: .\" $OpenBSD: whois.1,v 1.9 1999/11/15 19:40:59 millert Exp $
1.1 deraadt 2: .\" $NetBSD: whois.1,v 1.5 1995/08/31 21:51:32 jtc Exp $
3: .\"
4: .\" Copyright (c) 1985, 1990, 1993
5: .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
6: .\"
7: .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
8: .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
9: .\" are met:
10: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
11: .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
12: .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
13: .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
14: .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
15: .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
16: .\" must display the following acknowledgement:
17: .\" This product includes software developed by the University of
18: .\" California, Berkeley and its contributors.
19: .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
20: .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
21: .\" without specific prior written permission.
22: .\"
23: .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
24: .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
25: .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
26: .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
27: .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
28: .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
29: .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
30: .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
31: .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
32: .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
33: .\" SUCH DAMAGE.
34: .\"
35: .\" @(#)whois.1 8.2 (Berkeley) 6/20/94
36: .\"
37: .Dd June 20, 1994
38: .Dt WHOIS 1
1.5 aaron 39: .Os
1.1 deraadt 40: .Sh NAME
41: .Nm whois
1.3 deraadt 42: .Nd Internet domain name and network number directory service
1.1 deraadt 43: .Sh SYNOPSIS
44: .Nm whois
1.9 millert 45: .Op Fl adgipqQrR
1.3 deraadt 46: .Op Fl h Ar host
1.4 aaron 47: .Ar name Op Ar ...
1.1 deraadt 48: .Sh DESCRIPTION
1.4 aaron 49: .Nm whois
1.3 deraadt 50: looks up records in the databases maintained by several
51: Network Information Centers
52: .Pq Tn NICs Ns .
1.1 deraadt 53: .Pp
54: The options are as follows:
55: .Bl -tag -width Ds
1.3 deraadt 56: .It Fl a
57: Use the American Registry for Internet Numbers
58: .Pq Tn ARIN
59: database. It contains network numbers used in those parts of the world
60: covered neither by
61: .Tn APNIC nor by
62: .Tn RIPE .
63: .It Fl d
64: Use the (US Military) Defense Data Network
65: .Pq Tn DDN
66: database. It contains points of contact for subdomains of
67: .Tn \&.MIL Ns .
1.8 millert 68: .It Fl g
69: Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of
70: contact for subdomains of
71: .Tn \&.GOV Ns .
1.3 deraadt 72: .It Fl h Ar host
73: Use the specified host instead of the default NIC
1.8 millert 74: (whois.crsnic.net).
1.3 deraadt 75: Either a host name or an IP address may be specified.
1.8 millert 76: .It Fl i
77: Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers
78: .Pq Tn InterNIC
79: database. It contains network numbers and domain contact information
80: for most of
81: .Tn \&.COM ,
82: .Tn \&.NET ,
83: .Tn \&.ORG
84: and
85: .Tn \&.EDU
86: domains.
1.6 deraadt 87: .It Fl m
88: Use the Route Arbiter Database
89: .Pq Tn RADB
90: database. It contains route policy specifications for a large
91: number of operators' networks.
1.3 deraadt 92: .It Fl p
93: Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center
94: .Pq Tn APNIC
95: database. It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia,
96: New Zealand, and the Pacific islands.
1.6 deraadt 97: .It Fl q
98: Construct the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain
99: .Pq Tn TLD
100: of the supplied (single) argument, and appending ".whois-servers.net".
101: This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected
1.7 deraadt 102: automatically for a large number of TLDs, ie. all of the following will
103: .Ql just work :
104: .Pp
105: .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
106: whois -q patho.gen.nz
107: whois -q microsoft.com
108: whois -q nasa.gov
109: whois -q nic.fr
110: whois -q demon.co.uk
111: .Ed
1.10 ! deraadt 112: .Pp
1.9 millert 113: This option is now the default.
1.7 deraadt 114: .Pp
1.9 millert 115: .It Fl Q
116: Do a quick lookup. This means that
117: .Nm
118: will not attempt to lookup the name in the authoratative whois
119: server (if one is listed) nor will it contact InterNic if a lookup
120: fails. This flag has no effect when combined with any other flag.
1.3 deraadt 121: .It Fl r
122: Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens
123: .Pq Tn RIPE
124: database. It contains network numbers and domain contact information
125: for Europe.
1.8 millert 126: .It Fl R
127: Use the Russia Network Information Center
128: .Pq Tn RIPN
129: database. It contains network numbers and domain contact information
130: for subdomains of
131: .Tn \&.RU Ns .
1.1 deraadt 132: .El
133: .Pp
134: The operands specified to
135: .Nm whois
136: are concatenated together (separated by white-space) and presented to
137: the
138: .Nm whois
139: server.
140: .Pp
141: The default action, unless directed otherwise with a special
142: .Ar name ,
143: is to do a very broad search, looking for matches to
144: .Ar name
145: in all types of records and most fields (name, nicknames, hostname, net
146: address, etc.) in the database.
147: For more information as to what
148: .Ar name
149: operands have special meaning, and how to guide the search, use
150: the special name
151: .Dq Ar help .
152: .Sh SEE ALSO
153: RFC 812: Nicname/Whois
154: .Sh HISTORY
155: The
156: .Nm whois
157: command appeared in
158: .Bx 4.3 .