whois
- Internet domain name and network number directory service
SYNOPSIS
[-aAbdfgiIklmQrR6
]
[-c country-code | -h host
]
[-p port
]
name ...
DESCRIPTION
The
utility looks up records in the databases maintained by several
Network Information Centers
(NICs
)
The options are as follows:
-a
Use the American Registry for Internet Numbers
(ARIN
)
database.
It contains network numbers used in those parts of the world covered neither by
APNIC , AfriNIC , LACNIC
nor by
RIPE
(Hint: All point of contact handles in the
ARIN
whois database end with
Qq Li -ARIN . )
-A
Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center
(APNIC
)
database.
It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia,
New Zealand, and the Pacific islands.
-b
Use the Network Abuse Clearinghouse database.
It contains addresses to which network abuse should be reported,
indexed by domain name.
-c country-code
This is the equivalent of using the
-h
option with an argument of
Qq Ar country-code Ns Li .whois-servers.net .
-d
Use the US Department of Defense
database.
It contains points of contact for subdomains of
.MIL
-f
Use the African Network Information Centre
(AfriNIC
)
database.
It contains network numbers used in Africa and the islands of the
western Indian Ocean.
-g
Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of
contact for subdomains of
.GOV
-h host
Use the specified host instead of the default variant.
Either a host name or an IP address may be specified.
By default
constructs the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain
(TLD
)
of the supplied (single) argument, and appending
Qq Li .whois-servers.net .
This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected
automatically for a large number of
TLDs
In the event that an IP
address is specified, the whois server will default to the American
Registry for Internet Numbers
(ARIN
)
If a query to
ARIN
references
APNIC , AfriNIC , LACNIC
or
RIPE
that server will be queried also, provided that the
-Q
option is not specified.
If the query is not a domain name or IP address,
will fall back to
whois.crsnic.net
-i
Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers
(whois.networksolutions.com
)
database.
It contains network numbers and domain contact information for most of
.COM , .NET , .ORG
and
.EDU
domains.
NOTE
The registration of these domains is now done by a number of
independent and competing registrars and this database holds no information
on the domains registered by organizations other than Network Solutions, Inc.
Also, note that the
InterNIC
database
(whois.internic.net
)
is no longer handled by Network Solutions, Inc.
For details, see
http://www.internic.net/
(Hint: Contact information, identified by the term
handle
can be looked up by prefixing
Qq Li handle
to the
NIC
handle in the query.)
-I
Use the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
(IANA
)
database.
It contains network information for top-level domains.
-k
Use the National Internet Development Agency of Korea's
(KRNIC
)
database.
It contains network numbers and domain contact information
for Korea.
-l
Use the Latin American and Caribbean IP address Regional Registry
(LACNIC
)
database.
It contains network numbers used in much of Latin America and the
Caribbean.
-m
Use the Route Arbiter Database
(RADB
)
database.
It contains route policy specifications for a large
number of operators' networks.
-p port
Connect to the whois server on
port
If this option is not specified,
defaults to port 43.
-Q
Do a quick lookup.
This means that
will not attempt to lookup the name in the authoritative whois
server (if one is listed).
This option has no effect when combined with any other options.
-r
Use the R´eseaux IP Europ´eens
(RIPE
)
database.
It contains network numbers and domain contact information
for Europe.
-R
Use the Russia Network Information Center
(RIPN
)
database.
It contains network numbers and domain contact information
for subdomains of
.RU
This option is deprecated; use the
-c
option with an argument of
Qq Li RU
instead.
-6
Use the IPv6 Resource Center
(6bone
)
database.
It contains network names and addresses for the IPv6 network.
The operands specified to
are treated independently and may be used
as queries on different whois servers.
EXAMPLES
Most types of data, such as domain names and
IP
addresses, can be used as arguments to
without any options, and
will choose the correct whois server to query.
Some exceptions, where
will not be able to handle data correctly, are detailed below.
To obtain contact information about an
administrator located in the Russian
TLD
domain
Qq Li RU ,
use the
-c
option as shown in the following example, where
CONTACT-ID
is substituted with the actual contact identifier.
"whois -c RU CONTACT-ID"
(Note: This example is specific to the
TLD
Qq Li RU ,
but other
TLDs can be queried by using a similar syntax.)
The following example demonstrates how to obtain information about an
IPv6
address or hostname using the
-6
option, which directs the query to
6bone
"whois -6 IPv6-IP-Address"
The following example demonstrates how to query
a whois server using a non-standard port, where
``query-data
''
is the query to be sent to
``whois.example.com
''
on port
``rwhois
''
(written numerically as 4321).
"whois -h whois.example.com -p rwhois query-data"
SEE ALSO
Ken Harrenstien
Vic White
NICNAME/WHOIS
1 March 1982
RFC 812
