1.\" $NetBSD: whois.1,v 1.5 1995/08/31 21:51:32 jtc Exp $ 2.\" 3.\" Copyright (c) 1985, 1990, 1993 4.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 5.\" 6.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 7.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 8.\" are met: 9.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 11.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 12.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 13.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 14.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software 15.\" must display the following acknowledgement: 16.\" This product includes software developed by the University of 17.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. 18.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 19.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 20.\" without specific prior written permission. 21.\" 22.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 23.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 24.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 25.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 26.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 27.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 28.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 29.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 30.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 31.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 32.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 33.\" 34.\" @(#)whois.1 8.2 (Berkeley) 6/20/94 35.\" 36.Dd June 20, 1994 37.Dt WHOIS 1 38.Os BSD 4.3 39.Sh NAME 40.Nm whois 41.Nd Internet user name directory service 42.Sh SYNOPSIS 43.Nm whois 44.Op Fl h Ar hostname 45.Ar name ... 46.Sh DESCRIPTION 47.Nm Whois 48looks up records in the Network Information Center 49.Pq Tn NIC 50database. 51.Pp 52The options are as follows: 53.Bl -tag -width Ds 54.It Fl h 55Use the specified host instead of the default NIC (whois.internic.net). 56.El 57.Pp 58The operands specified to 59.Nm whois 60are concatenated together (separated by white-space) and presented to 61the 62.Nm whois 63server. 64.Pp 65The default action, unless directed otherwise with a special 66.Ar name , 67is to do a very broad search, looking for matches to 68.Ar name 69in all types of records and most fields (name, nicknames, hostname, net 70address, etc.) in the database. 71For more information as to what 72.Ar name 73operands have special meaning, and how to guide the search, use 74the special name 75.Dq Ar help . 76.Sh SEE ALSO 77RFC 812: Nicname/Whois 78.Sh HISTORY 79The 80.Nm whois 81command appeared in 82.Bx 4.3 . 83