Annotation of src/usr.bin/whois/whois.1, Revision 1.18
1.18 ! millert 1: .\" $OpenBSD: whois.1,v 1.17 2002/09/05 17:22:16 fgsch 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
1.18 ! millert 45: .Op Fl adgilmpqQrR6
! 46: .Op Fl c Ar country-code | 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 .
1.18 ! millert 64: .It Fl c Ar country-code
! 65: This is the equivalent of using the
! 66: .Fl h
! 67: option with an argument of
! 68: .Qq Ar country-code Ns Li .whois-servers.net .
1.3 deraadt 69: .It Fl d
70: Use the (US Military) Defense Data Network
71: .Pq Tn DDN
1.13 aaron 72: database.
73: It contains points of contact for subdomains of
1.3 deraadt 74: .Tn \&.MIL Ns .
1.8 millert 75: .It Fl g
76: Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of
77: contact for subdomains of
78: .Tn \&.GOV Ns .
1.3 deraadt 79: .It Fl h Ar host
80: Use the specified host instead of the default NIC
1.8 millert 81: (whois.crsnic.net).
1.3 deraadt 82: Either a host name or an IP address may be specified.
1.8 millert 83: .It Fl i
84: Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers
85: .Pq Tn InterNIC
1.13 aaron 86: database.
87: It contains network numbers and domain contact information for most of
1.8 millert 88: .Tn \&.COM ,
89: .Tn \&.NET ,
90: .Tn \&.ORG
91: and
92: .Tn \&.EDU
93: domains.
1.17 fgsch 94: .It Fl l
95: Use the Latin America and Caribbean Network Information Center
96: .Pq Tn LACNIC
97: database.
1.6 deraadt 98: .It Fl m
99: Use the Route Arbiter Database
100: .Pq Tn RADB
1.14 aaron 101: database.
102: It contains route policy specifications for a large
1.6 deraadt 103: number of operators' networks.
1.3 deraadt 104: .It Fl p
105: Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center
106: .Pq Tn APNIC
1.13 aaron 107: database.
108: It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia,
1.3 deraadt 109: New Zealand, and the Pacific islands.
1.6 deraadt 110: .It Fl q
111: Construct the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain
112: .Pq Tn TLD
113: of the supplied (single) argument, and appending ".whois-servers.net".
114: This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected
1.11 aaron 115: automatically for a large number of TLDs, i.e., all of the following will
1.7 deraadt 116: .Ql just work :
117: .Pp
118: .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
1.16 mpech 119: $ whois -q patho.gen.nz
120: $ whois -q microsoft.com
121: $ whois -q nasa.gov
122: $ whois -q nic.fr
123: $ whois -q demon.co.uk
1.7 deraadt 124: .Ed
1.10 deraadt 125: .Pp
1.9 millert 126: This option is now the default.
1.7 deraadt 127: .Pp
1.9 millert 128: .It Fl Q
1.13 aaron 129: Do a quick lookup.
130: This means that
1.9 millert 131: .Nm
132: will not attempt to lookup the name in the authoratative whois
133: server (if one is listed) nor will it contact InterNic if a lookup
1.13 aaron 134: fails.
135: This flag has no effect when combined with any other flag.
1.3 deraadt 136: .It Fl r
137: Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens
138: .Pq Tn RIPE
1.13 aaron 139: database.
140: It contains network numbers and domain contact information for Europe.
1.8 millert 141: .It Fl R
142: Use the Russia Network Information Center
143: .Pq Tn RIPN
1.13 aaron 144: database.
145: It contains network numbers and domain contact information
1.8 millert 146: for subdomains of
147: .Tn \&.RU Ns .
1.18 ! millert 148: .It Fl 6
! 149: Use the IPv6 Resource Center
! 150: .Pq Tn 6bone
! 151: database.
! 152: It contains network names and addresses for the IPv6 network.
1.1 deraadt 153: .El
154: .Pp
155: The operands specified to
1.13 aaron 156: .Nm
1.12 aaron 157: are concatenated together (separated by whitespace) and presented to
1.1 deraadt 158: the
1.13 aaron 159: .Nm
1.1 deraadt 160: server.
161: .Pp
162: The default action, unless directed otherwise with a special
163: .Ar name ,
164: is to do a very broad search, looking for matches to
165: .Ar name
166: in all types of records and most fields (name, nicknames, hostname, net
167: address, etc.) in the database.
168: For more information as to what
169: .Ar name
170: operands have special meaning, and how to guide the search, use
171: the special name
1.13 aaron 172: .Dq help .
1.18 ! millert 173: .Sh EXAMPLES
! 174: Most types of data, such as domain names and
! 175: .Tn IP
! 176: addresses, can be used as arguments to
! 177: .Nm
! 178: without any options, and
! 179: .Nm
! 180: will choose the correct whois server to query.
! 181: Some exceptions, where
! 182: .Nm
! 183: will not be able to handle data correctly, are detailed below.
! 184: .Pp
! 185: To obtain contact information about an
! 186: administrator located in the Russian
! 187: .Tn TLD
! 188: domain
! 189: .Qq Li RU ,
! 190: use the
! 191: .Fl c
! 192: option as shown in the following example, where
! 193: .Ar CONTACT-ID
! 194: is substituted with the actual contact identifier.
! 195: .Pp
! 196: .Dl "whois -c RU CONTACT-ID"
! 197: .Pp
! 198: (Note: This example is specific to the
! 199: .Tn TLD
! 200: .Qq Li RU ,
! 201: but other
! 202: .Tn TLDs
! 203: can be queried by using a similar syntax.)
! 204: .Pp
! 205: The following example demonstrates how to obtain information about an
! 206: .Tn IPv6
! 207: address or hostname using the
! 208: .Fl 6
! 209: option, which directs the query to
! 210: .Tn 6bone .
! 211: .Pp
! 212: .Dl "whois -6 IPv6-IP-Address"
1.1 deraadt 213: .Sh SEE ALSO
1.18 ! millert 214: .Rs
! 215: .%A Ken Harrenstien
! 216: .%A Vic White
! 217: .%T NICNAME/WHOIS
! 218: .%D 1 March 1982
! 219: .%O RFC 812
! 220: .Re
1.1 deraadt 221: .Sh HISTORY
222: The
1.13 aaron 223: .Nm
1.1 deraadt 224: command appeared in
225: .Bx 4.3 .
![[BACK]](/icons/back.gif){kind=icon}
Return to whois.1 CVS log ![[TXT]](/icons/text.gif){kind=icon}
![[DIR]](/icons/dir.gif){kind=icon}
Up to [local] / src / usr.bin / whois