Annotation of src/usr.bin/whois/whois.1, Revision 1.4
1.4 ! aaron 1: .\" $OpenBSD: whois.1,v 1.3 1998/02/24 10:09:50 deraadt Exp $
1.1 deraadt 2: .\" $NetBSD: whois.1,v 1.5 1995/08/31 21:51:32 jtc Exp $
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35: .\" @(#)whois.1 8.2 (Berkeley) 6/20/94
36: .\"
37: .Dd June 20, 1994
38: .Dt WHOIS 1
39: .Os BSD 4.3
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
1.3 deraadt 45: .Op Fl adpr
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 .
68: .It Fl h Ar host
69: Use the specified host instead of the default NIC
70: (whois.internic.net).
71: Either a host name or an IP address may be specified.
72: .It Fl p
73: Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center
74: .Pq Tn APNIC
75: database. It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia,
76: New Zealand, and the Pacific islands.
77: .It Fl r
78: Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens
79: .Pq Tn RIPE
80: database. It contains network numbers and domain contact information
81: for Europe.
1.1 deraadt 82: .El
83: .Pp
84: The operands specified to
85: .Nm whois
86: are concatenated together (separated by white-space) and presented to
87: the
88: .Nm whois
89: server.
90: .Pp
91: The default action, unless directed otherwise with a special
92: .Ar name ,
93: is to do a very broad search, looking for matches to
94: .Ar name
95: in all types of records and most fields (name, nicknames, hostname, net
96: address, etc.) in the database.
97: For more information as to what
98: .Ar name
99: operands have special meaning, and how to guide the search, use
100: the special name
101: .Dq Ar help .
102: .Sh SEE ALSO
103: RFC 812: Nicname/Whois
104: .Sh HISTORY
105: The
106: .Nm whois
107: command appeared in
108: .Bx 4.3 .