{ "mode": "man", "parameter": "WHOIS", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/WHOIS/1/json", "generated": "2026-06-17T20:55:06Z", "synopsis": "whois [ { -h | --host } HOST ] [ { -p | --port } PORT ] [ -abBcdGHIKlLmMrRx ]\n[ -g SOURCE:FIRST-LAST ] [ -i ATTR[,ATTR]... ] [ -s SOURCE[,SOURCE]... ] [ -T\nTYPE[,TYPE]... ] [ --verbose ] [ --no-recursion ] OBJECT\nwhois -q KEYWORD\nwhois -t TYPE\nwhois -v TYPE", "sections": { "NAME": { "content": "whois - client for the whois directory service\n", "subsections": [] }, "SYNOPSIS": { "content": "whois [ { -h | --host } HOST ] [ { -p | --port } PORT ] [ -abBcdGHIKlLmMrRx ]\n[ -g SOURCE:FIRST-LAST ] [ -i ATTR[,ATTR]... ] [ -s SOURCE[,SOURCE]... ] [ -T\nTYPE[,TYPE]... ] [ --verbose ] [ --no-recursion ] OBJECT\n\nwhois -q KEYWORD\n\nwhois -t TYPE\n\nwhois -v TYPE\n", "subsections": [ { "name": "whois --help", "content": "" }, { "name": "whois --version", "content": "" } ] }, "DESCRIPTION": { "content": "whois searches for an object in a RFC 3912 database.\n\nThis version of the whois client tries to guess the right server to ask for the specified ob‐\nject. If no guess can be made it will connect to whois.networksolutions.com for NIC handles\nor whois.arin.net for IPv4 addresses and network names.\n", "subsections": [] }, "OPTIONS": { "content": "", "subsections": [ { "name": "-h --host=", "content": "Connect to HOST.\n", "flag": "-h" }, { "name": "-H", "content": "", "flag": "-H" }, { "name": "-p --port=", "content": "Connect to PORT.\n", "flag": "-p" }, { "name": "-I", "content": "tative for that request. This works for IP addresses, AS numbers and domains. BE‐‐\nWARE: this implies that the IANA server will receive your complete query.\n", "flag": "-I" }, { "name": "--no-recursion", "content": "Disable recursion from registry to registrar servers.\n", "long": "--no-recursion" }, { "name": "--verbose", "content": "Be verbose.\n\n--help Display online help.\n", "long": "--verbose" }, { "name": "--version", "content": "Display the program version.\n\nOther options are flags understood by whois.ripe.net and some other RIPE-like servers:\n", "long": "--version" }, { "name": "-a", "content": "", "flag": "-a" }, { "name": "-b", "content": "", "flag": "-b" }, { "name": "-B", "content": "", "flag": "-B" }, { "name": "-c", "content": "", "flag": "-c" }, { "name": "-d", "content": "", "flag": "-d" }, { "name": "-g", "content": "Search updates from SOURCE database between FIRST and LAST update serial number. It\nis useful to obtain Near Real Time Mirroring stream.\n", "flag": "-g" }, { "name": "-G", "content": "", "flag": "-G" }, { "name": "-i", "content": "Inverse-search objects having associated attributes. ATTR is the attribute name,\nwhile the positional OBJECT argument is the attribute value.\n", "flag": "-i" }, { "name": "-K", "content": "jects, which is always returned. Another exception are all attributes of the objects\norganisation, person and role, that are never returned.\n", "flag": "-K" }, { "name": "-l", "content": "", "flag": "-l" }, { "name": "-L", "content": "", "flag": "-L" }, { "name": "-m", "content": "", "flag": "-m" }, { "name": "-M", "content": "", "flag": "-M" }, { "name": "-q", "content": "Return information about the server. KEYWORD can be version for the server version,\nsources for the list of database sources or types for the list of supported object\ntypes.\n", "flag": "-q" }, { "name": "-r", "content": "", "flag": "-r" }, { "name": "-R", "content": "server.\n", "flag": "-R" }, { "name": "-s", "content": "Request the server to search for objects mirrored from SOURCE. Sources are delimited\nby comma, and the order is significant. Use the -q sources parameter to obtain a\nlist of valid sources.\n", "flag": "-s" }, { "name": "-t", "content": "", "flag": "-t" }, { "name": "-T", "content": "Restrict the search to objects of TYPE. Multiple types are separated by a comma.\n", "flag": "-T" }, { "name": "-v", "content": "", "flag": "-v" }, { "name": "-x", "content": "", "flag": "-x" } ] }, "NOTES": { "content": "When querying the Verisign gTLDs (e.g. .com, .net...) thin registry servers for a domain, the\nprogram will automatically prepend the domain keyword to only show domain records. The name‐\nserver or registrar keywords must be used to show other kinds of records.\n\nWhen querying whois.arin.net for IPv4 or IPv6 networks, the CIDR netmask length will be auto‐\nmatically removed from the query string.\n\nWhen querying whois.nic.ad.jp for AS numbers, the program will automatically convert the re‐\nquest in the appropriate format, inserting a space after the string AS.\n\nWhen querying whois.denic.de for domain names and no other flags have been specified, the\nprogram will automatically add the flag -T dn.\n\nWhen querying whois.dk-hostmaster.dk for domain names and no other flags have been specified,\nthe program will automatically add the flag --show-handles.\n\nRIPE-specific command line options are ignored when querying non-RIPE servers. This may or\nmay not be the behaviour intended by the user. When using non-standard query parameters then\nthe command line options which are not to be interpreted by the client must follow the --\nseparator (which marks the beginning of the query string).\n\nIf the /etc/whois.conf configuration file exists, it will be consulted to find a server be‐\nfore applying the normal rules. Each line of the file should contain a regular expression to\nbe matched against the query text and the whois server to use, separated by white space. IDN\ndomains must use the ACE format.\n\nThe whois protocol does not specify an encoding for characters which cannot be represented by\nASCII and implementations vary wildly. If the program knows that a specific server uses a\ncertain encoding, if needed it will transcode the server output to the encoding specified by\nthe current system locale.\n\nCommand line arguments will always be interpreted accordingly to the current system locale\nand converted to the IDN ASCII Compatible Encoding.\n", "subsections": [] }, "FILES": { "content": "/etc/whois.conf\n", "subsections": [] }, "ENVIRONMENT": { "content": "LANG When querying whois.nic.ad.jp and whois.jprs.jp English text is requested unless the\nLANG or LCMESSAGES environment variables specify a Japanese locale.\n\nWHOISOPTIONS\nA list of options which will be evaluated before the ones specified on the command\nline.\n\nWHOISSERVER\nThis server will be queried if the program cannot guess where some kind of objects are\nlocated. If the variable does not exist then whois.arin.net will be queried.\n", "subsections": [] }, "SEE ALSO": { "content": "whois.conf(5).\n\nRFC 3912: WHOIS Protocol Specification.\n\nRIPE Database Query Reference Manual: \n", "subsections": [] }, "BUGS": { "content": "The program may have buffer overflows in the command line parser: be sure to not pass un‐\ntrusted data to it. It should be rewritten to use a dynamic strings library.\n", "subsections": [] }, "HISTORY": { "content": "This program closely tracks the user interface of the whois client developed at RIPE by Am‐\nbrose Magee and others on the base of the original BSD client.\n", "subsections": [] }, "AUTHOR": { "content": "Whois and this man page were written by Marco d'Itri and are licensed under the\nterms of the GNU General Public License, version 2 or higher.\n\n\n\n\nMarco d'Itri 2019-12-30 WHOIS(1)", "subsections": [] } }, "summary": "whois - client for the whois directory service", "flags": [ { "flag": "-h", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "Connect to HOST." }, { "flag": "-H", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "-p", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "Connect to PORT." }, { "flag": "-I", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "tative for that request. This works for IP addresses, AS numbers and domains. BE‐‐ WARE: this implies that the IANA server will receive your complete query." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-recursion", "arg": null, "description": "Disable recursion from registry to registrar servers." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--verbose", "arg": null, "description": "Be verbose. --help Display online help." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--version", "arg": null, "description": "Display the program version. Other options are flags understood by whois.ripe.net and some other RIPE-like servers:" }, { "flag": "-a", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "-b", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "-B", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "-c", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "-d", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "-g", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "Search updates from SOURCE database between FIRST and LAST update serial number. It is useful to obtain Near Real Time Mirroring stream." }, { "flag": "-G", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "-i", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "Inverse-search objects having associated attributes. ATTR is the attribute name, while the positional OBJECT argument is the attribute value." }, { "flag": "-K", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "jects, which is always returned. Another exception are all attributes of the objects organisation, person and role, that are never returned." }, { "flag": "-l", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "-L", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "-m", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "-M", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "-q", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "Return information about the server. KEYWORD can be version for the server version, sources for the list of database sources or types for the list of supported object types." }, { "flag": "-r", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "-R", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "server." }, { "flag": "-s", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "Request the server to search for objects mirrored from SOURCE. Sources are delimited by comma, and the order is significant. Use the -q sources parameter to obtain a list of valid sources." }, { "flag": "-t", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "-T", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "Restrict the search to objects of TYPE. Multiple types are separated by a comma." }, { "flag": "-v", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "-x", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "" } ], "examples": [], "see_also": [ { "name": "whois.conf", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/whois.conf/5/json" } ], "tldr": { "source": "official", "description": "Client for the WHOIS (RFC 3912) protocol.", "examples": [ { "description": "Get information about a domain name", "command": "whois {{example.com}}" }, { "description": "Get information about an IP address", "command": "whois {{8.8.8.8}}" }, { "description": "Get abuse contact for an IP address", "command": "whois -b {{8.8.8.8}}" } ] } }