whois(1) General Commands Manual whois(1)
NAME
whois - Internet user name directory service
SYNOPSIS
hostname] name
DESCRIPTION
looks up records in the Network Information Center database.
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''.
Options
supports the following option:
use the specified host instead of the default NIC.
EXAMPLES
Look up user John Doe
DEPENDENCIES
The machine making the enquiry must be able to route the request over the network to the specified host, or to the default NIC.
AUTHOR
was developed by the University of California, Berkeley.
SEE ALSO
RFC 854: Nicname/Whois
whois(1)
