# phpman > man > WHOIS(1) > **TLDR:** Client for the WHOIS (RFC 3912) protocol. > - Get information about a domain name: `whois {{example.com}}` - Get information about an IP address: `whois {{8.8.8.8}}` - Get abuse contact for an IP address: `whois -b {{8.8.8.8}}` *Source: tldr-pages* --- [WHOIS(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/WHOIS/1/markdown) Debian GNU/Linux [WHOIS(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/WHOIS/1/markdown) ## NAME whois - client for the whois directory service ## SYNOPSIS **whois** [ { **-h** | **--host** } _HOST_ ] [ { **-p** | **--port** } _PORT_ ] [ **-abBcdGHIKlLmMrRx** ] [ **-g** _SOURCE:FIRST-LAST_ ] [ **-i** _ATTR_[,_ATTR_]... ] [ **-s** _SOURCE_[,_SOURCE_]... ] [ **-T** _TYPE_[,_TYPE_]... ] [ **--verbose** ] [ **--no-recursion** ] _OBJECT_ **whois** **-q** _KEYWORD_ **whois** **-t** _TYPE_ **whois** **-v** _TYPE_ ### whois --help ### whois --version ## DESCRIPTION **whois** searches for an object in a _RFC_ _3912_ database. This version of the whois client tries to guess the right server to ask for the specified ob‐ ject. If no guess can be made it will connect to _whois.networksolutions.com_ for NIC handles or _whois.arin.net_ for IPv4 addresses and network names. ## OPTIONS ### -h --host= Connect to _HOST_. ### -H ### -p --port= Connect to _PORT_. ### -I 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. ### --no-recursion Disable recursion from registry to registrar servers. ### --verbose Be verbose. **--help** Display online help. ### --version Display the program version. Other options are flags understood by _whois.ripe.net_ and some other RIPE-like servers: ### -a ### -b ### -B ### -c ### -d ### -g Search updates from _SOURCE_ database between _FIRST_ and _LAST_ update serial number. It is useful to obtain Near Real Time Mirroring stream. ### -G ### -i Inverse-search objects having associated attributes. _ATTR_ is the attribute name, while the positional _OBJECT_ argument is the attribute value. ### -K jects, which is always returned. Another exception are all attributes of the objects _organisation_, _person_ and _role_, that are never returned. ### -l ### -L ### -m ### -M ### -q 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. ### -r ### -R server. ### -s 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. ### -t ### -T Restrict the search to objects of _TYPE_. Multiple types are separated by a comma. ### -v ### -x ## NOTES When querying the Verisign gTLDs (e.g. .com, .net...) thin registry servers for a domain, the program will automatically prepend the _domain_ keyword to only show domain records. The _name__‐ _server_ or _registrar_ keywords must be used to show other kinds of records. When querying _whois.arin.net_ for IPv4 or IPv6 networks, the CIDR netmask length will be auto‐ matically removed from the query string. When querying _whois.nic.ad.jp_ for AS numbers, the program will automatically convert the re‐ quest in the appropriate format, inserting a space after the string _AS_. When querying _whois.denic.de_ for domain names and no other flags have been specified, the program will automatically add the flag _-T_ _dn_. When querying _whois.dk-hostmaster.dk_ for domain names and no other flags have been specified, the program will automatically add the flag _--show-handles_. RIPE-specific command line options are ignored when querying non-RIPE servers. This may or may not be the behaviour intended by the user. When using non-standard query parameters then the command line options which are not to be interpreted by the client must follow the _--_ separator (which marks the beginning of the query string). If the _/etc/whois.conf_ configuration file exists, it will be consulted to find a server be‐ fore applying the normal rules. Each line of the file should contain a regular expression to be matched against the query text and the whois server to use, separated by white space. IDN domains must use the ACE format. The whois protocol does not specify an encoding for characters which cannot be represented by ASCII and implementations vary wildly. If the program knows that a specific server uses a certain encoding, if needed it will transcode the server output to the encoding specified by the current system locale. Command line arguments will always be interpreted accordingly to the current system locale and converted to the IDN ASCII Compatible Encoding. ## FILES /etc/whois.conf ## ENVIRONMENT LANG When querying _whois.nic.ad.jp_ and _whois.jprs.jp_ English text is requested unless the _LANG_ or _LC_MESSAGES_ environment variables specify a Japanese locale. WHOIS_OPTIONS A list of options which will be evaluated before the ones specified on the command line. WHOIS_SERVER This server will be queried if the program cannot guess where some kind of objects are located. If the variable does not exist then _whois.arin.net_ will be queried. ## SEE ALSO [_whois.conf_(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/whois.conf/5/markdown). _RFC_ _3912_: WHOIS Protocol Specification. _RIPE_ _Database_ _Query_ _Reference_ _Manual_: <_‐ _tion/ripe-database-query-reference-manual_> ## BUGS The program may have buffer overflows in the command line parser: be sure to not pass un‐ trusted data to it. It should be rewritten to use a dynamic strings library. ## HISTORY This program closely tracks the user interface of the whois client developed at RIPE by Am‐ brose Magee and others on the base of the original BSD client. ## AUTHOR **Whois** and this man page were written by Marco d'Itri <<_md@linux.it_>> and are licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2 or higher. Marco d'Itri 2019-12-30 [WHOIS(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/WHOIS/1/markdown)