WHOIS(1) BSD Reference Manual WHOIS(1)
whois - Internet domain name and network number directory service
whois [-6AadgilmQRr] [-c country-code | -h host] [-p port] name [...]
The whois utility looks up records in the databases maintained by several
Network Information Centers (NICs).
The options are as follows:
-6 Use the IPv6 Resource Center (6bone) database. It contains net-
work names and addresses for the IPv6 network.
-A Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center (APNIC) database.
It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia, New
Zealand, and the Pacific islands.
-a Use the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) database.
It contains network numbers used in those parts of the world
covered neither by APNIC nor by RIPE.
(Hint: All point of contact handles in the ARIN whois database
end with "-ARIN".)
-c country-code
This is the equivalent of using the -h option with an argument of
"country-code.whois-servers.net".
-d Use the US Department of Defense database. It contains points of
contact for subdomains of .MIL.
-g Use the US non-military federal government database, which con-
tains points of contact for subdomains of .GOV.
-h host
Use the specified host instead of the default NIC
(whois.crsnic.net). Either a host name or an IP address may be
specified.
By default whois constructs the name of a whois server to use
from the top-level domain (TLD) of the supplied (single) argu-
ment, and appending ".whois-servers.net". This effectively allows
a suitable whois server to be selected automatically for a large
number of TLDs.
In the event that an IP address is specified, the whois server
will default to the American Registry for Internet Numbers
(ARIN). If a query to ARIN references APNIC, LACNIC, or RIPE,
that server will be queried also, provided that the -Q option is
not specified.
If the query is not a domain name or IP address, whois will fall
back to whois.crsnic.net.
-i Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers
(whois.networksolutions.com) database. Historically, it contained
network numbers and domain contact information for most of .COM,
.NET, .ORG and .EDU domains. However, the registration of these
domains is now done by a number of independent and competing re-
gistrars and this database holds no information on the domains
registered by organizations other than Network Solutions, Inc.
Also, note that the InterNIC database (whois.internic.net) is no
longer handled by Network Solutions, Inc. For details, see
http://www.internic.net/.
(Hint: Contact information, identified by the term handle, can be
looked up by prefixing "!" or "handle " to the NIC handle in the
query.)
-l Use the Latin American and Caribbean IP address Regional Registry
(LACNIC) database. It contains network numbers used in much of
Latin America and the Caribbean.
-m Use the Route Arbiter Database (RADB) database. It contains route
policy specifications for a large number of operators' networks.
-p port
Connect to the whois server on port. If this option is not speci-
fied, whois defaults to the "whois" port listed in /etc/services
(port 43).
-Q Do a quick lookup. This means that whois will not attempt to
lookup the name in the authoritative whois server (if one is
listed) nor will it contact InterNic if a lookup fails. This flag
has no effect when combined with any other flag.
-R Use the Russia Network Information Center (RIPN) database. It
contains network numbers and domain contact information for sub-
domains of .RU. This option is deprecated; use the -c option with
an argument of "RU" instead.
-r Use the R'eseaux IP Europ'eens (RIPE) database. It contains net-
work numbers and domain contact information for Europe.
The default action, unless directed otherwise with a special name, is to
do a very broad search, looking for matches to name in all types of
records and most fields (name, nicknames, hostname, net address, etc.) in
the database. For more information as to what name operands have special
meaning, and how to guide the search, use the special name "help".
Queries beginning with an exclamation point '!' are assumed to be NSI
contact handles. Unless a host or domain is specified on the command
line, (whois.networksolutions.com) will be used as the whois database.
Similarly, queries beginning with "COCO-" are assumed to be CORE contact
handles. Unless a host or domain is specified on the command line,
(whois.corenic.net) will be used as the whois database.
Most types of data, such as domain names and IP addresses, can be used as
arguments to whois without any options, and whois will choose the correct
whois server to query. Some exceptions, where whois will not be able to
handle data correctly, are detailed below.
To obtain contact information about an administrator located in the Rus-
sian TLD domain "RU", use the -c option as shown in the following exam-
ple, where CONTACT-ID is substituted with the actual contact identifier.
whois -c RU CONTACT-ID
(Note: This example is specific to the TLD "RU", but other TLDs can be
queried by using a similar syntax.)
The following example demonstrates how to obtain information about an
IPv6 address or hostname using the -6 option, which directs the query to
6bone.
whois -6 IPv6-IP-Address
The following example demonstrates how to query a whois server using a
non-standard port, where "query-data" is the query to be sent to
"whois.example.com" on port "rwhois" (written numerically as 4321).
whois -h whois.example.com -p rwhois query-data
Ken Harrenstien and Vic White, NICNAME/WHOIS, 1 March 1982, RFC 812.
The whois command appeared in 4.3BSD.
MirBSD #10-current January 6, 2003 2