whois.md(1)

1WHOIS(1)                       Debian GNU/Linux                       WHOIS(1)
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NAME

6       whois - client for the whois directory service
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SYNOPSIS

9       whois  [  { -h | --host } HOST ] [ { -p | --port } PORT ] [ -abBcdGHIK‐
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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DESCRIPTION

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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OPTIONS

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       -I      First  query whois.iana.org and then follow its referral to the
43               whois server authoritative for that request. This works for  IP
44               addresses,  AS numbers and domains. BEWARE: this means that the
45               IANA server will see your complete query.
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47       --verbose
48               Be verbose.
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50       --help  Display online help.
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52       --version
53               Display client version information.
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55       Other options are flags understood by  whois.ripe.net  and  some  other
56       RIPE-like servers:
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58       -a      Also search all the mirrored databases.
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60       -b      Return brief IP address ranges with abuse contact.
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62       -B      Disable object filtering. (Show the e-mail addresses.)
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64       -c      Return the smallest IP address range with a reference to an irt
65               object.
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67       -d      Return the reverse DNS delegation object too.
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69       -g SOURCE:FIRST-LAST
70               Search updates from SOURCE  database  between  FIRST  and  LAST
71               update serial number. It's useful to obtain Near Real Time Mir‐
72               roring stream.
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74       -G      Disable grouping of associated objects.
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76       -i ATTR[,ATTR]...
77               Search objects having associated attributes. ATTR is  attribute
78               name.  Attribute value is positional OBJECT argument.
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80       -K      Return  primary  key  attributes  only.  Exception  is  members
81               attribute of set  object  which  is  always  returned.  Another
82               exceptions  are all attributes of objects organisation, person,
83               and role that are never returned.
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85       -l      Return the one level less specific object.
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87       -L      Return all levels of less specific objects.
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89       -m      Return all one level more specific objects.
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91       -M      Return all levels of more specific objects.
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93       -q KEYWORD
94               Return list of keywords supported by  server.  KEYWORD  can  be
95               version  for  server  version, sources for list of source data‐
96               bases, or types for object types.
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98       -r      Disable recursive look-up for contact information.
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100       -R      Disable following referrals and force showing the  object  from
101               the local copy in the server.
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103       -s SOURCE[,SOURCE]...
104               Request the server to search for objects mirrored from SOURCES.
105               Sources are delimited by comma and the  order  is  significant.
106               Use -q sources option to obtain list of valid sources.
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108       -t TYPE Return the template for a object of TYPE.
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110       -T TYPE[,TYPE]...
111               Restrict the search to objects of TYPE. Multiple types are sep‐
112               arated by a comma.
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114       -v TYPE Return the verbose template for a object of TYPE.
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116       -x      Search for only exact match on network address prefix.
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NOTES

119       When querying the Verisign gTLDs (e.g.  .com,  .net...)  thin  registry
120       servers  for a domain the program will automatically prepend the domain
121       keyword to only show domain records.  The nameserver or registrar  key‐
122       words must be used to show other kinds of records.
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124       When  querying  whois.arin.net for IPv4 or IPv6 networks, the CIDR net‐
125       mask length will be automatically removed from the query string.
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127       When querying whois.nic.ad.jp for AS numbers, the program will automat‐
128       ically convert the request in the appropriate format, inserting a space
129       after the string AS.
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131       When querying whois.denic.de for domain names and no other  flags  have
132       been specified, the program will automatically add the flag -T dn.
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134       When  querying  whois.dk-hostmaster.dk  for  domain  names and no other
135       flags have been specified, the program will automatically add the  flag
136       --show-handles.
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138       RIPE-specific  command  line options are ignored when querying non-RIPE
139       servers. This may or may not be the behaviour  intended  by  the  user.
140       When querying a non-standard server, command line options which are not
141       to be interpreted by the client should always follow the  --  separator
142       (which marks the beginning of the query string).
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144       If  the /etc/whois.conf configuration file exists, it will be consulted
145       to find a server before applying the normal rules.  Each  line  of  the
146       file  should  contain  a  regular  expression to be matched against the
147       query text and the whois server to use, separated by white space.   IDN
148       domains must use the ACE format.
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150       The  whois  protocol  does not specify an encoding for characters which
151       cannot be represented by ASCII and implementations vary wildly.  If the
152       program knows that a specific server uses a certain encoding, if needed
153       it will transcode the server output to the encoding  specified  by  the
154       current system locale.
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156       Command  line  arguments  will always be interpreted accordingly to the
157       current system locale and converted to the IDN ASCII Compatible  Encod‐
158       ing.
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FILES

161       /etc/whois.conf
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ENVIRONMENT

164       LANG   When  querying whois.nic.ad.jp and whois.jprs.jp English text is
165              requested unless the LANG or LC_MESSAGES  environment  variables
166              specify a Japanese locale.
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168       WHOIS_OPTIONS
169              A list of options which will be evaluated before the ones speci‐
170              fied on the command line.
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172       WHOIS_SERVER
173              This server will be queried if the program  cannot  guess  where
174              some kind of objects are located. If the variable does not exist
175              then whois.arin.net will be queried.
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BUGS

186       The  program  may  have buffer overflows in the command line parser: be
187       sure to not pass untrusted data to it.  It should be rewritten to use a
188       dynamic strings library.
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HISTORY

191       This  program  closely  tracks  the  user interface of the whois client
192       developed at RIPE by Ambrose Magee and others on the base of the origi‐
193       nal BSD client.
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AUTHOR

196       Whois  and this man page were written by Marco d'Itri <md@linux.it> and
197       are licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version
198       2 or higher.
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203Marco d'Itri                     17 June 2019                         WHOIS(1)