This is jwhois.info, produced by makeinfo version 4.0b from jwhois.texi.

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* jwhois: (jwhois).     Whois client.
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   This file documents JWHOIS, a Whois client.

   Copyright (C) 1999-2002  Free Software Foundation, Inc.

   Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
preserved on all copies.

   Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of
this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that
the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
permission notice identical to this one.


File: jwhois.info,  Node: Top,  Next: Introduction,  Prev: (dir),  Up: (dir)

   This file documents the GNU jwhois package, en extended Whois client.
This is edition 3.1, for jwhois version 3.1, last updated 9 january
2002.

* Menu:

* Introduction::                Introduction
* Invocation::                  How to invoke jwhois
* Site Configuration::          Syntax of the configuration file
* RIPE Extensions::             Extensions for RIPE databases
* Reporting bugs::              Reporting bugs

 --- The Detailed Node Listing ---

Site Configuration

* Global options::              Global configuration options
* Whois servers::               Syntax for selecting whois servers
* Server options::              Syntax for server options


File: jwhois.info,  Node: Introduction,  Next: Invocation,  Prev: Top,  Up: Top

Introduction
************

   JWHOIS is an Internet Whois client that contains an extensible
configuration file which defines its operation. The client supports
queries to foreign hosts either through the RFC 954 - NICNAME/WHOIS
protocol, the RFC 2167 - Referral Whois 1.5 protocol, or HTTP using an
external browser.

   Upon execution, JWHOIS searches through the its configuration to
find the most specific whois server to query. Depending upon the reply
from that whois server, JWHOIS can assume the query was successfull and
display the result to the user, or optionally redirect the query to
another server to find more specific information.


File: jwhois.info,  Node: Invocation,  Next: Site Configuration,  Prev: Introduction,  Up: Top

Invocation
**********

   JWHOIS uses the following command-line options:
`--version'
     Print the program version and licensing information.

`--help'
     Print a usage message summarizing the command-line options.

`-c FILE'

`--config=FILE'
     Reads configuration from FILE instead of from the default system
     global configuration file.

`-h HOST'

`--host=HOST'
     Overrides any specifications in the configuration file and queries
     HOST directly.

`-p PORT'

`--port=PORT'
     Specifies a port number to use when querying a HOST

`-f'

`--force-lookup'
     Forces a query to be made to a host even if a current object is
     available from the cache.

`-v'

`--verbose'
     Outputs verbose debugging information while running (use this
     before sending a bugreport to ensure that it's indeed a bug and
     not a misconfiguration). You can increase the verbosity by giving
     several verbose commands to jwhois, such as `-vv'.

`-n'

`--no-redirect'
     Disable features that redirect queries from one server to another.

`-s'

`--no-whoisservers'
     Disable the built-in support for whois-servers.net.

`-a'

`--raw'
     Send query verbatim to receiving hosts instead of rewriting them
     according to the configuration.

`-i'

`--display-redirections'
     Display every step in a redirection (default is to display only the
     last answer).

`-d'

`--disable-cache'
     Completely disable both reading and writing to cache

`-r'

`--rwhois'
     Force the query to use the rwhois protocoll instead of HTTP or
     whois.

`--rwhois-display=DISPLAY'
     Asks receiving rwhois servers to display the results in the
     DISPLAY display instead of the default dump display.

`--rwhois-limit=LIMIT'
     asks receiving rwhois servers to limit their responses to LIMIT
     matches.

   The query can optionally contain the character `@' followed by a
host name to direct the search to that host. This works exactly like
specifying the host with `--host' or `-h'.


File: jwhois.info,  Node: Site Configuration,  Next: Global options,  Prev: Invocation,  Up: Top

Site Configuration
******************

   JWHOIS is configurable via its configuration file, normally called
`jwhois.conf'. This file is looked for in the sysconfdir that was
specified when compiling the program (default is `/usr/local/etc/' on
most systems).

   If no configuration file can be found, JWHOIS will default all
queries to <whois.internic.net>.

   An example configuration file that includes most known Whois servers
can be found in the `example' subdirectory of the official distribution.
This example configuration also contains a lot of well used options
that should be suitable for most setups.

   The configuration file is split into a number of blocks. Each block
can contain a number of different options which are explained in the
sections below. You can also get an overview of the syntax by looking
at the example configuration file included in the distribution.

* Menu:

* Global options::              Global configuration options
* Whois servers::               Syntax for selecting whois servers
* Server options::              Syntax for server options


File: jwhois.info,  Node: Global options,  Next: Whois servers,  Prev: Site Configuration,  Up: Top

Global options
**************

   The global options of JWHOIS configure some basic facilities that
are to be used for all hosts and queries made.

`cachefile'
     By default, the location of the cache file is
     `/usr/local/var/jwhois.db', but this can be changed at compile
     time. The option `cachefile' also changes the location.

`cacheexpire'
     The default expire time for all cached objects it 7 days (168
     hours). this can be changed with the `cacheexpire' option. The
     value is the number of hours that objects is considered to be
     current.

`whois-servers-domain'
     Whois-servers.net is a service offered by the CenterGate Research
     Group. They register CNAMEs in the <whois-servers.net> domain for
     every known top-level domain, pointing to the appropriate whois
     server.

     When querying for `wildebeest.se' for example, JWHOIS would look
     for an address <se.whois-servers.net> and query the appropriate
     server based on that information.

     If you wish to make whois-servers.net-style queries using another
     domain name than <whois-servers.net>, you can change this option
     to the domain name you want.

`browser-pathname'

`browser-stdarg'

`browser-postarg'
     These options control the HTTP support on JWHOIS.
     `browser-pathname' should be set to the path and executable of the
     browser you wish to use to download information from
     HTTP-gateways. This is normally a program such as LYNX or CURL.

     `browser-stdarg' sets the arguments to pass to the browser in
     order to have the browser direct its options to the standard
     output. JWHOIS catches this information and displays it to the
     user.

     `browser-postarg' sets the arguments used to enable a LYNX-style
     processing of POST requests.  A LYNX-style processing means that
     the program, when passed this option, should accept one variable
     per line of input on standard input, ended with three dashes.

   Examples:

     cachefile = "/var/lib/jwhois.db";
     cacheexpire = 168;
     browser-pathname = "/usr/bin/lynx";
     browser-stdarg = "-dump";
     browser-postarg = "-post_data";


File: jwhois.info,  Node: Whois servers,  Next: Server options,  Prev: Global options,  Up: Top

Whois servers
*************

   When making a query, JWHOIS looks at the `whois-servers' block to
determine which host to send the query to. This block consists of a
number of rules. Each rule is evaluated in turn, starting with the
first one in `whois-servers'.  A rule consists of a key and a value.
The key can be either a special option, or a CIDR block or regular
expression that is matched against the query that the user specified.

   The special option `type' takes one value, either `cidr' or `regex'.
This defines the current blocks matching. Each block can match either
with CIDR blocks or regular expressions, never both.

   If the key is a regular expression, the value can take on of two
forms. Either a single string containing the hostname of the
appropriate whois-server, optionally postfixed with a colon and a port
number, or a block.

   If the value of the regular expression is a block, it can contain
any number of options. The options `whois-server' and `query-format'
are supported today.

   `whois-server' specifies the hostname of the whois server to send a
query to, optionally postfixed with a colon and a port number, just as
if the value had been a single string containing the whois server
hostname.

   `query-format' rewrites queries matching this rule according to the
contents of the options value. The special characters `$*' are replaced
with the original query.  If a `query-format' is specified both on an
individual rule and on a server option, the most `query-format' for the
individual rule will be used since it is most specific.

   The special keyword `default' can be used to mark an entry as valid
for all keys. The most specific rule will be used when searching for a
host to query.

   Examples:

     whois-servers {
             type = regex;
     
     	"\\([0-9]+\\.\\)+[0-9]+" = "struct cidr-blocks";
             ".*-[A-Z]+$" = "struct handles";
     
             default = "whois.internic.net";
     };
     handles {
             type = regex;
     
             ".*-RIPE$" = "whois.ripe.net";
     };
     
     cidr {
             type = cidr;
     
             "61.0.0.0/8" {
                     whois-server = "whois.apnic.net";
                     query-format = "$* /e";
             }
             default = "whois.arin.net";
     };


File: jwhois.info,  Node: Server options,  Next: RIPE Extensions,  Prev: Whois servers,  Up: Top

Server options
**************

   The `server-options' block defines a number of parameters that are
specific to each host.

`whois-redirect'
     This option, previously located in a separate content-redirect
     block of the configuration file, matches output from standard
     whois servers and redirects the query to another host based on the
     output.

     The most commonly used option here is to redirect the query from
     the Internic shared whois server to the whois server of each
     individual registrar.

     The value of the key `whois-redirect' should contain a regular
     expression which matches one or two string. If it matches one
     string, it will be treated as the hostname of a server to ask for
     more information. If it matches two strings, the first string will
     be treated as the hostname and the second as the port number.

     The matching follows standard regular expressions and grouping of
     regular expressions into one string is done by enclosing the group
     in parentheses.

`query-format'
     By specifying a `query-format', the query can be rewritten before
     being sent to the target whois server. This is useful for example
     if the server defaults to output its information in another
     language than English, and you wish to always rewrite queries sent
     to it according to some syntax that enables output in English.

     The value of this option is a simple string where the special
     characters `$*' will be replaced with the original query.  If a
     `query-format' is specified both on an individual rule and on a
     server option, the most `query-format' for the individual rule
     will be used since it is most specific.

`http'
     The `http' option specifies that this server supports queries made
     via HTTP. The value should be set to `true' if this is the case.
     The options `http-method', `http-action' and `form-element' must
     also be set for this to work.

`http-method'
     When asking servers for information through HTTP, this option
     specifies the HTTP method to use. It can be either `GET' or
     `POST'. Many servers support either method, so selecting one is a
     matter of personal preference.

`http-action'
     This option specifies the action of the HTTP query sent to a
     remote host. Most often, this is simply the pathname of the URL.

`form-element'
     The `form-element' is the name of the HTML form element which
     should contain the query. Usually this is something simple, like
     `domain', but you need to verify this by looking at each servers
     HTML documents before setting this option to its correct value.

`rwhois'
     Set this option to `true' if the server supports the rwhois
     protocol, this option makes JWHOIS send all queries to the server
     as rwhois queries.

`rwhois-display'
     If the server supports rwhois and you wish to select another
     display than the default dump format, you can set this option to
     the display you wish to use.

`rwhois-limit'
     If the server supports rwhois and you wish to limit the amount of
     responses to a query, you can set this option to the number of
     responses you would like to receive at maximum.

   Examples:
     server-options {
     	"rwhois\\.nic\\.ve" {
     		rwhois = true;
     		rwhois-display = "dump";
     		rwhois-limit = 10;
     	}
     	"whois\\.crsnic\\.net" {
     		whois-redirect = ".*Whois Server: \\(.*\\)";
     	}
     	"whois\\.ncst\\.ernet\\.in" {
     		query-format = "domain $*";
     	}
     	"www\\.nic-se\\.se" {
     		http = true;
     		http-method = "GET";
     		http-action = "/cgi-bin/whois/www-to-whois";
     		form-element = "domain";
     	}
     }


File: jwhois.info,  Node: RIPE Extensions,  Next: Reporting bugs,  Prev: Server options,  Up: Top

RIPE Extensions
***************

   RIPE (Réseaux IP Européens) has defined a number of options that can
be used against a RIPE-compatible whois server (ripe.net, apnic.net and
others).  Unfortunately, there is really no way of telling whether a
host we are connecting to is RIPE-compatible or not.  RIPE extensions
are therefore not directly incorporated into the JWHOIS client.  A list
of the options can be found in RIPE Document 157 which you can get from
the RIPE ftp server, <ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/docs/>.

   It is possible to use these options together with JWHOIS by changing
the format of the query slightly. If you were to search for all entries
in the RIPE database which lists the admin-c, tech-c or zone-c as
CO19-RIPE, you could use the following command syntax:

     $ jwhois -h whois.ripe.net -- -i admin-c,tech-c,zone-c CO19-RIPE

   `--' is used to separate the RIPE options from the jwhois options.


File: jwhois.info,  Node: Reporting bugs,  Prev: RIPE Extensions,  Up: Top

Reporting bugs
**************

   Email bug reports to `bug-jwhois@gnu.org'.



Tag Table:
Node: Top677
Node: Introduction1430
Node: Invocation2162
Node: Site Configuration4262
Node: Global options5449
Node: Whois servers7716
Node: Server options10122
Node: RIPE Extensions13957
Node: Reporting bugs14981

End Tag Table
