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Clean up whois manual.

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Document the RA_SERVER environment variable.

Remove the obsolete -R option, and discourage people from trying
to use the Network Solutions server.

Describe the default behaviour in the DESCRIPTION section,
not buried in the options.
This commit is contained in:
fanf 2015-05-14 10:30:37 +00:00
parent 983d16c8e2
commit 9a041aa829
1 changed files with 42 additions and 67 deletions
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109
usr.bin/whois/whois.1
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@ -47,6 +47,38 @@ utility looks up records in the databases maintained by several
Network Information Centers
.Pq Tn NICs .
.Pp
By default
.Nm
constructs the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain
.Pq Tn TLD
of the supplied (single) argument, and appending
.Qq Li .whois-servers.net .
This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected
automatically for a large number of
.Tn TLDs .
.Pp
In the event that an IP
address is specified, the whois server will default to the American
Registry for Internet Numbers
.Pq Tn ARIN .
If a query to
.Tn ARIN
references
.Tn APNIC , AfriNIC , LACNIC ,
or
.Tn RIPE ,
that server will be queried also, provided that the
.Fl Q
option is not specified.
.Pp
If the query is not a domain name or IP address,
.Nm
will fall back to
the host specified in the
.Ev RA_SERVER
environment variable, or if that is not set, it will use
.Pa whois.crsnic.net .
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Fl a
@ -90,64 +122,10 @@ contact for subdomains of
.It Fl h Ar host
Use the specified host instead of the default variant.
Either a host name or an IP address may be specified.
.Pp
By default
.Nm
constructs the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain
.Pq Tn TLD
of the supplied (single) argument, and appending
.Qq Li .whois-servers.net .
This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected
automatically for a large number of
.Tn TLDs .
.Pp
In the event that an IP
address is specified, the whois server will default to the American
Registry for Internet Numbers
.Pq Tn ARIN .
If a query to
.Tn ARIN
references
.Tn APNIC , AfriNIC , LACNIC ,
or
.Tn RIPE ,
that server will be queried also, provided that the
.Fl Q
option is not specified.
.Pp
If the query is not a domain name or IP address,
.Nm
will fall back to
.Pa whois.crsnic.net .
.It Fl i
Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers
Use the obsolete Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers
.Pq Pa whois.networksolutions.com
database.
It contains network numbers and domain contact information for most of
.Pa .COM , .NET , .ORG
and
.Pa .EDU
domains.
.Pp
.Sy NOTE !
The registration of these domains is now done by a number of
independent and competing registrars and this database holds no information
on the domains registered by organizations other than Network Solutions, Inc.
Also, note that the
.Tn InterNIC
database
.Pq Pa whois.internic.net
is no longer handled by Network Solutions, Inc.
For details, see
.Pa http://www.internic.net/ .
.Pp
(Hint: Contact information, identified by the term
.Em handle ,
can be looked up by prefixing
.Qq Li "handle "
to the
.Tn NIC
handle in the query.)
.It Fl I
Use the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
.Pq Tn IANA
@ -190,24 +168,21 @@ Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens
database.
It contains network numbers and domain contact information
for Europe.
.It Fl R
Use the Russia Network Information Center
.Pq Tn RIPN
database.
It contains network numbers and domain contact information
for subdomains of
.Pa .RU .
This option is deprecated; use the
.Fl c
option with an argument of
.Qq Li RU
instead.
.El
.Pp
The operands specified to
.Nm
are treated independently and may be used
as queries on different whois servers.
.Sh ENVIRONMENT
.Bl -tag
.It Ev RA_SERVER
The default whois server.
If this is unset,
.Nm
will use
.Pa whois.crsnic.net .
.El
.Sh EXIT STATUS
.Ex -std
.Sh EXAMPLES