Annotation of src/usr.bin/whois/whois.1, Revision 1.14
1.14 ! aaron 1: .\" $OpenBSD: whois.1,v 1.13 2000/03/14 14:58:26 aaron Exp $
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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
1.13 aaron 49: .Nm
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
1.13 aaron 59: database.
60: It contains network numbers used in those parts of the world
1.3 deraadt 61: covered neither by
62: .Tn APNIC nor by
63: .Tn RIPE .
64: .It Fl d
65: Use the (US Military) Defense Data Network
66: .Pq Tn DDN
1.13 aaron 67: database.
68: It contains points of contact for subdomains of
1.3 deraadt 69: .Tn \&.MIL Ns .
1.8 millert 70: .It Fl g
71: Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of
72: contact for subdomains of
73: .Tn \&.GOV Ns .
1.3 deraadt 74: .It Fl h Ar host
75: Use the specified host instead of the default NIC
1.8 millert 76: (whois.crsnic.net).
1.3 deraadt 77: Either a host name or an IP address may be specified.
1.8 millert 78: .It Fl i
79: Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers
80: .Pq Tn InterNIC
1.13 aaron 81: database.
82: It contains network numbers and domain contact information for most of
1.8 millert 83: .Tn \&.COM ,
84: .Tn \&.NET ,
85: .Tn \&.ORG
86: and
87: .Tn \&.EDU
88: domains.
1.6 deraadt 89: .It Fl m
90: Use the Route Arbiter Database
91: .Pq Tn RADB
1.14 ! aaron 92: database.
! 93: It contains route policy specifications for a large
1.6 deraadt 94: number of operators' networks.
1.3 deraadt 95: .It Fl p
96: Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center
97: .Pq Tn APNIC
1.13 aaron 98: database.
99: It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia,
1.3 deraadt 100: New Zealand, and the Pacific islands.
1.6 deraadt 101: .It Fl q
102: Construct the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain
103: .Pq Tn TLD
104: of the supplied (single) argument, and appending ".whois-servers.net".
105: This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected
1.11 aaron 106: automatically for a large number of TLDs, i.e., all of the following will
1.7 deraadt 107: .Ql just work :
108: .Pp
109: .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
110: whois -q patho.gen.nz
111: whois -q microsoft.com
112: whois -q nasa.gov
113: whois -q nic.fr
114: whois -q demon.co.uk
115: .Ed
1.10 deraadt 116: .Pp
1.9 millert 117: This option is now the default.
1.7 deraadt 118: .Pp
1.9 millert 119: .It Fl Q
1.13 aaron 120: Do a quick lookup.
121: This means that
1.9 millert 122: .Nm
123: will not attempt to lookup the name in the authoratative whois
124: server (if one is listed) nor will it contact InterNic if a lookup
1.13 aaron 125: fails.
126: This flag has no effect when combined with any other flag.
1.3 deraadt 127: .It Fl r
128: Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens
129: .Pq Tn RIPE
1.13 aaron 130: database.
131: It contains network numbers and domain contact information for Europe.
1.8 millert 132: .It Fl R
133: Use the Russia Network Information Center
134: .Pq Tn RIPN
1.13 aaron 135: database.
136: It contains network numbers and domain contact information
1.8 millert 137: for subdomains of
138: .Tn \&.RU Ns .
1.1 deraadt 139: .El
140: .Pp
141: The operands specified to
1.13 aaron 142: .Nm
1.12 aaron 143: are concatenated together (separated by whitespace) and presented to
1.1 deraadt 144: the
1.13 aaron 145: .Nm
1.1 deraadt 146: server.
147: .Pp
148: The default action, unless directed otherwise with a special
149: .Ar name ,
150: is to do a very broad search, looking for matches to
151: .Ar name
152: in all types of records and most fields (name, nicknames, hostname, net
153: address, etc.) in the database.
154: For more information as to what
155: .Ar name
156: operands have special meaning, and how to guide the search, use
157: the special name
1.13 aaron 158: .Dq help .
1.1 deraadt 159: .Sh SEE ALSO
160: RFC 812: Nicname/Whois
161: .Sh HISTORY
162: The
1.13 aaron 163: .Nm
1.1 deraadt 164: command appeared in
165: .Bx 4.3 .