Annotation of src/usr.bin/whois/whois.1, Revision 1.7
1.7 ! deraadt 1: .\" $OpenBSD: whois.1,v 1.6 1999/10/03 00:42:34 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
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
1.3 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.
1.6 deraadt 72: .It Fl m
73: Use the Route Arbiter Database
74: .Pq Tn RADB
75: database. It contains route policy specifications for a large
76: number of operators' networks.
1.3 deraadt 77: .It Fl p
78: Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center
79: .Pq Tn APNIC
80: database. It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia,
81: New Zealand, and the Pacific islands.
1.6 deraadt 82: .It Fl q
83: Construct the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain
84: .Pq Tn TLD
85: of the supplied (single) argument, and appending ".whois-servers.net".
86: This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected
1.7 ! deraadt 87: automatically for a large number of TLDs, ie. all of the following will
! 88: .Ql just work :
! 89: .Pp
! 90: .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
! 91: whois -q patho.gen.nz
! 92: whois -q microsoft.com
! 93: whois -q nasa.gov
! 94: whois -q nic.fr
! 95: whois -q demon.co.uk
! 96: .Ed
! 97: .Pp
1.3 deraadt 98: .It Fl r
99: Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens
100: .Pq Tn RIPE
101: database. It contains network numbers and domain contact information
102: for Europe.
1.1 deraadt 103: .El
104: .Pp
105: The operands specified to
106: .Nm whois
107: are concatenated together (separated by white-space) and presented to
108: the
109: .Nm whois
110: server.
111: .Pp
112: The default action, unless directed otherwise with a special
113: .Ar name ,
114: is to do a very broad search, looking for matches to
115: .Ar name
116: in all types of records and most fields (name, nicknames, hostname, net
117: address, etc.) in the database.
118: For more information as to what
119: .Ar name
120: operands have special meaning, and how to guide the search, use
121: the special name
122: .Dq Ar help .
123: .Sh SEE ALSO
124: RFC 812: Nicname/Whois
125: .Sh HISTORY
126: The
127: .Nm whois
128: command appeared in
129: .Bx 4.3 .