.TH WHOIS 1 "3 December 1999" "Marco d'Itri" "Debian GNU/Linux"
.SH NAME
whois \- client for the whois directory service
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B whois
[\~\fB-h\fP\~\fIHOST\fP\~]
[\~\fB-p\fP\~ \fIPORT\fP\~]
[\~\fB-aCFLMmrRSV\fP\~]
[\~\fB-g\fP\~\fISOURCE:FIRST-LAST\fP\~]
[\~\fB-i\fP\~\fIATTR\fP\~]
[\~\fB-S\fP\~\fISOURCE\fP\~]
[\~\fB-T\fP\~\fITYPE\fP\~]
.I object

.B whois
[\~\fI-t\fP\~]
[\~\fI-v\fP\~]
[\~\fI-i\fP\~]
.I template
.PP
.SH DESCRIPTION
This version of the whois client tries to guess the right server to
ask for the specified object. If no guess can be made it will connect
to whois.networksolutions.com for domains, whois.arin.net for IPv4
addresses and whois.6bone.net for IPv6 addresses.
.PP
.SH OPTIONS
.TP 8
.B \-h HOST
Connect to HOST.
.TP 8
.B \-p PORT
Connect to PORT.
.TP 8
.B \-C
First query \fIwhois.crsnic.net\fP to find the registrar for a GTLD subdomain.
This option overrides \fB-h\fP.
.TP 8
.B \-V
Be verbose.
.TP 8
Other options are flags understood by RIPE-like servers.
.SH NOTES
The default server for gTLDs is \fIwhois.networksolutions.com\fP. Unless
the \fB-C\fP option is used the CRSNIC shared whois server is \fBnot\fP
queried and domains registered by other registrars will be reported as
unknown.
.P
Please remember that \fIwhois.networksolutions.com\fP by default will
only search in the domains database. If you want to search for hostnames,
NIC handles or people names you have to prepend the appropriate keyword
(\fIHO\fPst, \fIHA\fPndle or \fINA\fPme).
.P
When querying \fIwhois.arin.net\fP for AS numbers, the program will
automatically convert the request in the appropriate format, inserting
a space after the string "AS".
.P
When querying \fIwhois.ncst.ernet.in\fP for a string without spaces, the
.P
RIPE-specific options are ignored when querying non-RIPE servers.
.SH ENVIRONMENT
.IP LANG
When querying \fIwhois.nic.ad.jp\fP english text is requested unless the
.IP "WHOIS_SERVER"
This server will be queried if the program cannot guess where the object
is located. If the variable does not exist then
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.PP
.PP
Detailed help on available flags can be found in \fIRIPE-157\fP or in
the help file which can be obtained with the command:
.IP
.B whois -h whois.ripe.net HELP
.SH HISTORY
This program closely tracks the user interface of the whois client
developed at RIPE by Ambrose Magee and others on the base of the
original BSD client.
I also added support for the protocol extensions developed by David
Kessens of QWest for the 6bone server.
.SH AUTHOR
.B Whois
and this man page were written by Marco d'Itri <\fImd@linux.it\fP>
and are licensed under the GPL.