1WHOIS(1) Debian GNU/Linux WHOIS(1)
2
6 whois - client for the whois directory service
7
9 whois [ { -h | --host } HOST ] [ { -p | --port } PORT ] [ -abBcdGHIK‐
10 lLmMrRx ] [ -g SOURCE:FIRST-LAST ] [ -i ATTR[,ATTR]... ] [ -s
11 SOURCE[,SOURCE]... ] [ -T TYPE[,TYPE]... ] [ --verbose ] OBJECT
12 whois -q KEYWORD
14 whois -t TYPE
16 whois -v TYPE
18 whois --help
20 whois --version
22
25 whois searches for an object in a RFC 3912 database.
26 This version of the whois client tries to guess the right server to ask
28 for the specified object. If no guess can be made it will connect to
29 whois.networksolutions.com for NIC handles or whois.arin.net for IPv4
30 addresses and network names.
31
33 -h HOST, --host=HOST Connect to HOST.
34 -H Do not display the legal disclaimers that some registries like
36 to show you.
37 -p PORT, --port=PORT Connect to PORT.
39 -I First query whois.iana.org and then follow its referral to the
41 whois server authoritative for that request. This works for IP
42 addresses, AS numbers and domains. BEWARE: this implies that
43 the IANA server will receive your complete query.
44 --verbose
46 Be verbose.
47 --help Display online help.
49 --version
51 Display the program version.
52 Other options are flags understood by whois.ripe.net and some other
54 RIPE-like servers:
55 -a Also search all the mirrored databases.
57 -b Return brief IP address ranges with abuse contact.
59 -B Disable objects filtering. (Show the e-mail addresses.)
61 -c Return the smallest IP address range with a reference to an irt
63 object.
64 -d Return the reverse DNS delegation object too.
66 -g SOURCE:FIRST-LAST Search updates from SOURCE database between
68 FIRST and LAST update serial number. It is useful to obtain
69 Near Real Time Mirroring stream.
70 -G Disable grouping of associated objects.
72 -i ATTR[,ATTR]... Inverse-search objects having associated
74 attributes. ATTR is the attribute name, while the positional
75 OBJECT argument is the attribute value.
76 -K Return primary key attributes only. An exception is the members
78 attribute of set objects, which is always returned. Another
79 exception are all attributes of the objects organisation, per‐
80 son and role, that are never returned.
81 -l Return the one level less specific object.
83 -L Return all levels of less specific objects.
85 -m Return all one level more specific objects.
87 -M Return all levels of more specific objects.
89 -q KEYWORD Return information about the server. KEYWORD can be
91 version for the server version, sources for the list of data‐
92 base sources or types for the list of supported object types.
93 -r Disable recursive lookups for contact information.
95 -R Disable following referrals and force showing the object from
97 the local copy in the server.
98 -s SOURCE[,SOURCE]... Request the server to search for objects
100 mirrored from SOURCE. Sources are delimited by comma, and the
101 order is significant. Use the -q sources parameter to obtain a
102 list of valid sources.
103 -t TYPE Return the template for a object of TYPE.
105 -T TYPE[,TYPE]... Restrict the search to objects of TYPE. Multi‐
107 ple types are separated by a comma.
108 -v TYPE Return the verbose template for a object of TYPE.
110 -x Search for only exact match on network address prefix.
112
114 When querying the Verisign gTLDs (e.g. .com, .net...) thin registry
115 servers for a domain, the program will automatically prepend the domain
116 keyword to only show domain records. The nameserver or registrar key‐
117 words must be used to show other kinds of records.
118 When querying whois.arin.net for IPv4 or IPv6 networks, the CIDR net‐
120 mask length will be automatically removed from the query string.
121 When querying whois.nic.ad.jp for AS numbers, the program will automat‐
123 ically convert the request in the appropriate format, inserting a space
124 after the string AS.
125 When querying whois.denic.de for domain names and no other flags have
127 been specified, the program will automatically add the flag -T dn.
128 When querying whois.dk-hostmaster.dk for domain names and no other
130 flags have been specified, the program will automatically add the flag
131 --show-handles.
132 RIPE-specific command line options are ignored when querying non-RIPE
134 servers. This may or may not be the behaviour intended by the user.
135 When using non-standard query parameters then the command line options
136 which are not to be interpreted by the client must follow the -- sepa‐
137 rator (which marks the beginning of the query string).
138 If the /etc/whois.conf configuration file exists, it will be consulted
140 to find a server before applying the normal rules. Each line of the
141 file should contain a regular expression to be matched against the
142 query text and the whois server to use, separated by white space. IDN
143 domains must use the ACE format.
144 The whois protocol does not specify an encoding for characters which
146 cannot be represented by ASCII and implementations vary wildly. If the
147 program knows that a specific server uses a certain encoding, if needed
148 it will transcode the server output to the encoding specified by the
149 current system locale.
150 Command line arguments will always be interpreted accordingly to the
152 current system locale and converted to the IDN ASCII Compatible Encod‐
153 ing.
154
156 /etc/whois.conf
157
159 LANG When querying whois.nic.ad.jp and whois.jprs.jp English text is
160 requested unless the LANG or LC_MESSAGES environment variables
161 specify a Japanese locale.
162 WHOIS_OPTIONS
164 A list of options which will be evaluated before the ones speci‐
165 fied on the command line.
166 WHOIS_SERVER
168 This server will be queried if the program cannot guess where
169 some kind of objects are located. If the variable does not exist
170 then whois.arin.net will be queried.
171
173 whois.conf(5).
174 RFC 3912: WHOIS Protocol Specification.
176 RIPE Database Query Reference Manual:
178 <http://www.ripe.net/data-tools/support/documentation/ripe-data‐
179 base-query-reference-manual>
180
182 The program may have buffer overflows in the command line parser: be
183 sure to not pass untrusted data to it. It should be rewritten to use a
184 dynamic strings library.
185
187 This program closely tracks the user interface of the whois client
188 developed at RIPE by Ambrose Magee and others on the base of the origi‐
189 nal BSD client.
190
192 Whois and this man page were written by Marco d'Itri <md@linux.it> and
193 are licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version
194 2 or higher.
195Marco d'Itri 2019-12-30 WHOIS(1)