WHOIS(1)

NAME
whois - Internet domain name and network number directory service

SYNOPSIS
whois [-adgprR] [-h host] name ...

DESCRIPTION
Whois looks up records in the databases maintained by several Network Information Centers (NICs).

The options are as follows:

-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.

-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 contains points of contact for subdomains of .GOV.

-h host
    Use the specified host instead of the default NIC (whois.internic.net). Either a host name or an IP address may be specified.

-p  Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center (APNIC) database. It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific islands.

-r  Use the R´eseaux IP Europ´eens (RIPE) database. It contains network numbers and domain contact information for Europe.

-R  Use the Russia Network Information Center (RIPN) database. It contains network numbers and domain contact information for subdomains of .RU.

The operands specified to whois are concatenated together (separated by white-space) and presented to the whois server.

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”.

SEE ALSO
Ken Harrenstien, Vic White, NICNAME/WHOIS, 1 March 1982, RFC 812.

HISTORY
The whois command appeared in 4.3BSD.