How do I install whois client to see whois information about domain and ip address using command line options under Fedora / RHEL / Redhat / CentOS / Scientific Linux?
The whois command searches for an object in a RFC 3912 database. Red Hat/CentOS/RHEL/Fedora Linux comes with client for the whois directory service called whois or jwhois. The jwhois is a whois client that accepts both traditional and finger-style queries under RHEL. You can install the same using the yum command.Redhat / CentOS Install whois client command
Login as root and type the following yum command to install the jwhois client:
# yum install jwhois
OR
# yum install whois
Sample outputs:
Loaded plugins: priorities, rhnplugin
70 packages excluded due to repository priority protections
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package jwhois.x86_64 0:4.0-18.el6 set to be updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Dependencies Resolved
================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
================================================================================
Installing:
jwhois x86_64 4.0-18.el6 rhel-x86_64-server-6 104 k
Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install 1 Package(s)
Upgrade 0 Package(s)
Total download size: 104 k
Installed size: 0
Downloading Packages:
jwhois-4.0-18.el6.x86_64.rpm | 104 kB 00:00
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
Installing : jwhois-4.0-18.el6.x86_64 1/1
Installed:
jwhois.x86_64 0:4.0-18.el6
Complete!
How do I use whois command?
The syntax is:
whois domain
whois public-ip-address
whois [options] public-ip-address
This version of the whois client tries to guess the right server to ask for the specified object. 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. You can use the whois command as follows:
$ whois cyberciti.biz
$ whois 75.126.153.206
Sample outputs:
[Querying whois.arin.net]
[Redirected to rwhois.softlayer.com:4321]
[Querying rwhois.softlayer.com]
[rwhois.softlayer.com]
%rwhois V-1.5:003fff:00 rwhois.softlayer.com (by Network Solutions, Inc. V-1.5.9.5)
network:Class-Name:network
network:ID:NETBLK-SOFTLAYER.75.126.128.0/19
network:Auth-Area:75.126.128.0/19
network:Network-Name:SOFTLAYER-75.126.128.0
network:IP-Network:75.126.153.200/29
network:IP-Network-Block:75.126.153.200-75.126.153.207
network:Organization;I:SoftLayer Technologies, Inc.
network:Street-Address:1950 Stemmons Freeway Suite 2043
network:City:Dallas
network:State:TX
network:Postal-Code:75207
network:Country-Code:US
network:Tech-Contact;I:sysadmins@softlayer.com
network:Abuse-Contact;I:abuse@softlayer.com
network:Admin-Contact;I:IPADM258-ARIN
network:Created:20070218
network:Updated:20091220
network:Updated-By:ipadmin@softlayer.com
%referral rwhois://root.rwhois.net:4321/auth-area=.
%ok
Lookup for domain names
Simply run:
whois cyberciti.biz
Getting help about whois command
Type the following command:
$ man whois
OR
$ whois --help
Usage: whois [OPTION]... OBJECT...
-h HOST, --host HOST connect to server HOST
-p PORT, --port PORT connect to PORT
-H hide legal disclaimers
--verbose explain what is being done
--help display this help and exit
--version output version information and exit
These flags are supported by whois.ripe.net and some RIPE-like servers:
-l find the one level less specific match
-L find all levels less specific matches
-m find all one level more specific matches
-M find all levels of more specific matches
-c find the smallest match containing a mnt-irt attribute
-x exact match
-b return brief IP address ranges with abuse contact
-B turn off object filtering (show email addresses)
-G turn off grouping of associated objects
-d return DNS reverse delegation objects too
-i ATTR[,ATTR]... do an inverse look-up for specified ATTRibutes
-T TYPE[,TYPE]... only look for objects of TYPE
-K only primary keys are returned
-r turn off recursive look-ups for contact information
-R force to show local copy of the domain object even
if it contains referral
-a also search all the mirrored databases
-s SOURCE[,SOURCE]... search the database mirrored from SOURCE
-g SOURCE:FIRST-LAST find updates from SOURCE from serial FIRST to LAST
-t TYPE request template for object of TYPE
-v TYPE request verbose template for object of TYPE
-q [version|sources|types] query specified server infoConclusion
WHOIS is a query and response protocol used for querying databases that store the registered users or assignees of an Internet resource, such as a domain name, an IP address block. This page explained how to install whois client on Redhat (RHEL)/CentOS using yum command. See whois server list for top level domains here.