1WHOIS(1) Debian GNU/Linux WHOIS(1)
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6 whois - client for the whois directory service
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9 whois [ { -h | --host } HOST ] [ { -p | --port } PORT ] [ -abBcdGHK‐
10 lLmMrRx ] [ -g SOURCE:FIRST-LAST ] [ -i ATTR[,ATTR]... ]
11 [ -s SOURCE[,SOURCE]... ] [ -T TYPE[,TYPE]... ] [ --verbose ] OBJECT
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13 whois -q KEYWORD
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15 whois -t TYPE
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17 whois -v TYPE
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19 whois --help
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21 whois --version
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25 whois searches for an object in a RFC 3912 database.
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27 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.
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33 -h HOST, --host HOST
34 Connect to HOST.
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36 -H Do not display the legal disclaimers some registries like to
37 show you.
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39 -p, --port PORT
40 Connect to PORT.
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42 --verbose
43 Be verbose.
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45 --help Display online help.
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47 --version
48 Display client version information.
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50 Other options are flags understood by whois.ripe.net and some other
51 RIPE-like servers:
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53 -a Also search all the mirrored databases.
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55 -b Return brief IP address ranges with abuse contact.
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57 -B Disable object filtering. (Show the e-mail addresses.)
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59 -c Return the smallest IP address range with a reference to an irt
60 object.
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62 -d Return the reverse DNS delegation object too.
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64 -g SOURCE:FIRST-LAST
65 Search updates from SOURCE database between FIRST and LAST
66 update serial number. It's useful to obtain Near Real Time Mir‐
67 roring stream.
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69 -G Disable grouping of associated objects.
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71 -i ATTR[,ATTR]...
72 Search objects having associated attributes. ATTR is attribute
73 name. Attribute value is positional OBJECT argument.
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75 -K Return primary key attributes only. Exception is members
76 attribute of set object which is always returned. Another
77 exceptions are all attributes of objects organisation, person,
78 and role that are never returned.
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80 -l Return the one level less specific object.
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82 -L Return all levels of less specific objects.
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84 -m Return all one level more specific objects.
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86 -M Return all levels of more specific objects.
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88 -q KEYWORD
89 Return list of keywords supported by server. KEYWORD can be
90 version for server version, sources for list of source data‐
91 bases, or types for object types.
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93 -r Disable recursive look-up for contact information.
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95 -R Disable following referrals and force showing the object from
96 the local copy in the server.
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98 -s SOURCE[,SOURCE]...
99 Request the server to search for objects mirrored from SOURCES.
100 Sources are delimited by comma and the order is significant.
101 Use -q sources option to obtain list of valid sources.
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103 -t TYPE Return the template for a object of TYPE.
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105 -T TYPE[,TYPE]...
106 Restrict the search to objects of TYPE. Multiple types are sep‐
107 arated by a comma.
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109 -v TYPE Return the verbose template for a object of TYPE.
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111 -x Search for only exact match on network address prefix.
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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.
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119 When querying whois.arin.net for IPv4 or IPv6 networks, the CIDR net‐
120 mask length will be automatically removed from the query string.
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122 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.
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126 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.
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129 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.
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133 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 querying a non-standard server, command line options which are not
136 to be interpreted by the client should always follow the -- separator
137 (which marks the beginning of the query string).
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139 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.
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145 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.
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151 Command line arguments will always be interpreted accordingly to the
152 current system locale and converted to the IDN ASCII Compatible Encod‐
153 ing.
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156 /etc/whois.conf
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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.
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163 WHOIS_OPTIONS
164 A list of options which will be evaluated before the ones speci‐
165 fied on the command line.
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167 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.
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173 whois.conf(5)
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175 RFC 3912: WHOIS Protocol Specification
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177 RIPE Database Query Reference Manual: <http://www.ripe.net/data-
178 tools/support/documentation/ripe-database-query-reference-manual>
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181 The program may have buffer overflows in the command line parser: be
182 sure to not pass untrusted data to it. It should be rewritten to use a
183 dynamic strings library.
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186 This program closely tracks the user interface of the whois client
187 developed at RIPE by Ambrose Magee and others on the base of the origi‐
188 nal BSD client.
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191 Whois and this man page were written by Marco d'Itri <md@linux.it> and
192 are licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version
193 2 or higher.
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198Marco d'Itri 20 December 2009 WHOIS(1)