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 ] [ -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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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 -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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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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161 /etc/whois.conf
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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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178 whois.conf(5)
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180 RFC 3912: WHOIS Protocol Specification
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182 RIPE Database Query Reference Manual: <http://www.ripe.net/data-
183 tools/support/documentation/ripe-database-query-reference-manual>
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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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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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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)