whois, fwhois - query a whois or nicname database
SYNOPSIS
whois [-v] [-r|-n] [-h server] [-p port] [-t timeout] [--]
query[@server[:port]]
DESCRIPTION
whois formats and sends queries to any RFC954 whois server
and prints the results to standard output.
OPTIONS
-h server
The name of the server to query. If no server is
specified, the environment variables NICNAMESERVER
and WHOISSERVER are checked for server names, and
if neither is set, whois.crsnic.net is queried.
-p port
Change the port the whois client connects to. The
default is whois but any valid service name will
do. If you get bored you can try using finger and
see what happens.
-t Set a time limit for each query, after which the
client will exit rather than wait. The time limit
includes every part of the query, including name
resolution.
-r Force recursion. If the first server response con
tains a line similar to
Whois Server: hostname
whois will retry the same query with hostname as
the server. This is the default when the default
server is being queried.
-n Disable recursion, even if the default server is
being queried.
-v Be verbose in the query. This causes the client to
print the query string it will send to the server
before sending it.
-- Don't interpret subsequent -p, -h, -r, or -v flags
given as arguments.
BUGS
None known, but it's a simple enough protocol that I don't
think there are going to be any problems.
AUTHOR
Nalin Dahyabhai <nalin@redhat.com>
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