WHOIS(1)                     BSD Reference Manual                     WHOIS(1)

NAME
     whois - Internet user name directory service

SYNOPSIS
     whois [-h hostname] name ...

DESCRIPTION
     Whois looks up records in the Network Information Center (NIC) database.

     The options are as follows:

     -h      Use the specified host instead of the default NIC (whois.inter-
             nic.net).

     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''.

SEE ALSO
     RFC 812: Nicname/Whois

HISTORY
     The whois command appeared in 4.3BSD.