Section 1: whois
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man pages.
WHOIS(1) Debian GNU/Linux WHOIS(1)
NAME
whois - client for the whois directory service
SYNOPSIS
whois [ -h HOST ] [ -p PORT ] [ -aCFLMmrRSV ]
[ -g SOURCE:FIRST-LAST ] [ -i ATTR ] [ -S SOURCE ]
[ -T TYPE ] object
whois [ -t ] [ -v ] [ -i ] template
DESCRIPTION
whois searches for an object in a RFC-812 database.
This version of the whois client tries to guess the right
server to ask for the specified object. If no guess can be
made it will connect to whois.internic.net for domains,
whois.arin.net for IPv4 addresses and whois.6bone.net for
IPv6 addresses.
OPTIONS
-h HOST Connect to HOST.
-H Do not display the legal disclaimers some reg-
istries like to show you.
-p PORT Connect to PORT.
-V Be verbose.
Other options are flags understood by RIPE-like servers.
NOTES
Please remember that whois.networksolutions.com by default
will only search in the domains database. If you want to
search for hostnames, NIC handles or people names you have
to prepend the appropriate keyword (HOst, HAndle or NAme).
When querying whois.arin.net for AS numbers, the program
will automatically convert the request in the appropriate
format, inserting a space after the string "AS".
When querying whois.ncst.ernet.in for a string without
spaces, the domain keyword is prepended.
When querying whois.corenic.net, machine readable output
is requested.
RIPE-specific options are ignored when querying non-RIPE
servers.
ENVIRONMENT
LANG When querying whois.nic.ad.jp english text is
Marco d'Itri 3 December 1999 1
WHOIS(1) Debian GNU/Linux WHOIS(1)
requested unless the LANG environment variable
specifies a Japanese locale.
WHOIS_SERVER
This server will be queried if the program cannot
guess where the object is located. If the variable
does not exist then whois.internic.net will be
queried.
SEE ALSO
RFC 812: NICNAME/WHOIS
RIPE-157, RIPE-189: RIPE NCC Database Documentation
Detailed help on available flags can be found in RIPE-157
or in the help file which can be obtained with the com-
mand:
whois -h whois.ripe.net HELP
HISTORY
This program closely tracks the user interface of the
whois client developed at RIPE by Ambrose Magee and others
on the base of the original BSD client. I also added sup-
port for the protocol extensions developed by David
Kessens of QWest for the 6bone server.
AUTHOR
Whois and this man page were written by Marco d'Itri
and are licensed under the GPL.
Marco d'Itri 3 December 1999 2