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]...  ]  [  -s
11       SOURCE[,SOURCE]...  ] [ -T TYPE[,TYPE]... ] [ --verbose ] [ --no-recur‐
12       sion ] OBJECT
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14       whois -q KEYWORD
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16       whois -t TYPE
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18       whois -v TYPE
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20       whois --help
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22       whois --version
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DESCRIPTION

26       whois searches for an object in a RFC 3912 database.
27
28       This version of the whois client tries to guess the right server to ask
29       for  the  specified  object. If no guess can be made it will connect to
30       whois.networksolutions.com for NIC handles or whois.arin.net  for  IPv4
31       addresses and network names.
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OPTIONS

34       -h HOST, --host=HOST
35               Connect to HOST.
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37       -H      Do  not display the legal disclaimers that some registries like
38               to show you.
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40       -p PORT, --port=PORT
41               Connect to PORT.
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43       -I      First query whois.iana.org and then follow its referral to  the
44               whois  server authoritative for that request. This works for IP
45               addresses, AS numbers and domains.  BEWARE: this  implies  that
46               the IANA server will receive your complete query.
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48       --no-recursion
49               Disable recursion from registry to registrar servers.
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51       --verbose
52               Be verbose.
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54       --help  Display online help.
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56       --version
57               Display the program version.
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59       Other  options  are  flags  understood by whois.ripe.net and some other
60       RIPE-like servers:
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62       -a      Also search all the mirrored databases.
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64       -b      Return brief IP address ranges with abuse contact.
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66       -B      Disable objects filtering. (Show the e-mail addresses.)
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68       -c      Return the smallest IP address range with a reference to an irt
69               object.
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71       -d      Return the reverse DNS delegation object too.
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73       -g SOURCE:FIRST-LAST
74               Search  updates from SOURCE database between FIRST and LAST up‐
75               date serial number. It is useful to obtain Near Real Time  Mir‐
76               roring stream.
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78       -G      Disable grouping of associated objects.
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80       -i ATTR[,ATTR]...
81               Inverse-search  objects  having associated attributes.  ATTR is
82               the attribute name, while the positional OBJECT argument is the
83               attribute value.
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85       -K      Return primary key attributes only. An exception is the members
86               attribute of set objects, which is always returned. Another ex‐
87               ception  are all attributes of the objects organisation, person
88               and role, that are never returned.
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90       -l      Return the one level less specific object.
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92       -L      Return all levels of less specific objects.
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94       -m      Return all one level more specific objects.
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96       -M      Return all levels of more specific objects.
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98       -q KEYWORD
99               Return information about the server.  KEYWORD  can  be  version
100               for  the  server  version,  sources  for  the  list of database
101               sources or types for the list of supported object types.
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103       -r      Disable recursive lookups for contact information.
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105       -R      Disable following referrals and force showing the  object  from
106               the local copy in the server.
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108       -s SOURCE[,SOURCE]...
109               Request  the server to search for objects mirrored from SOURCE.
110               Sources are delimited by comma, and the order  is  significant.
111               Use the -q sources parameter to obtain a list of valid sources.
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113       -t TYPE Return the template for a object of TYPE.
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115       -T TYPE[,TYPE]...
116               Restrict  the  search  to  objects of TYPE.  Multiple types are
117               separated by a comma.
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119       -v TYPE Return the verbose template for a object of TYPE.
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121       -x      Search for only exact match on network address prefix.
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NOTES

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

166       /etc/whois.conf
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ENVIRONMENT

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

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

197       This program closely tracks the user interface of the whois client  de‐
198       veloped at RIPE by Ambrose Magee and others on the base of the original
199       BSD client.
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AUTHOR

202       Whois and this man page were written by Marco d'Itri <md@linux.it>  and
203       are licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version
204       2 or higher.
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209Marco d'Itri                      2019-12-30                          WHOIS(1)