NAME

     whob — display whois-type information of interest to Internet operators

SYNOPSIS

     whob [-h whois-server] [-g] [-AaCcfhNnOopRrstuVv] query

DESCRIPTION

     whob queries various sources of whois information for data of interest to network operators
     and their tracing and debugging tools.

     whob output is designed to be easily parsed, or better yet, its functionality can be added
     directly into your programs (see whois.h).

     The only mandatory parameter is the target host name or IP number.  Options toggle the
     display of more interesting data or change the sources used to obtain that data.

     One key advantage of whob is its lookup of ASN information derived from the global Internet
     routing table itself, as opposed to relying solely on what has been registered in the
     RADB/IRR (see below).  This data is, by default, sourced from the global pWhoIs service.
     See www.pwhois.org

     Other options are:

     -A ASN  Display all routing advertisements transiting the respective ASN.  The ASN may be
             supplied as the target argument, or a hostname or IP address may be supplied and
             whob will resolve the ASN automatically.

     -a ASN  Display all routing advertisements made by the respective Origin-AS.  The Origin-AS
             may be supplied as the target argument, or a hostname or IP address may be supplied
             and whob will resolve the ASN automatically.

     -P prefix
             Display all routing advertisements related to the CIDR prefix supplied by the user.

     -N ASN  Display all networks registered to the ASN supplied by the user.

     -O ASN  Display all contact information on file for the ASN supplied by the user.

     -g      Disable GIGO mode.  By popular request, whob takes input directly from the command
             line and passes it without modification to pWhoIs or whatever whois server is
             requested (-h).  The exact output is returned without any parsing.  To enable
             parsing and the other useful switches, disable GIGO mode by passing this (-g)
             option.

     -R      Display the Origin-AS on record at the RADB/IRR (Routing Arbiter Database/Internet
             Routing Registry) in addition the the Origin-AS provided by the prefix-based whois
             data source.

     -n      Display the network name on record with the IP network allocation registry also such
             as ARIN, RIPE, or APNIC.

     -o      Display the organization name on file at the registrar.

     -p      Display the AS-Path from the perspective of the current pwhois server.  The pwhois
             server may automatically exclude the initial, least specific ASN received from the
             operator of the network to which it is connected (unless that ASN is the only/origin
             ASN or unless it has multiple peers). Of course, this AS-Path is subjective.  If you
             rely on this and want AS-Paths that correspond to *your* network infrastructure, you
             may want to install your own pwhois server.  See the (-w) option and www.pwhois.org

     -t      Display the date the route was last cached by the pWhoIs server.

     -u      When possible, display dates in UTC/GMT instead of local time.

     -h/w host
             Change the source of prefix-based whois data from the default (pWhoIs) to any whois-
             compatible server of your choice (like your own).

     -f file
             Read from the specified file (or from stdin if the argument is '-') and submit its
             contents as bulk input to pwhois.  The input will be buffered accordingly and
             subject to the constraints of the current pwhois server.  Output is written to
             STDOUT (which may be redirected) and will not be parsed.  Additional instructions to
             pwhois may be placed at the beginning of the file, however they will only apply to
             the first buffer of pwhois input.  The first (left-most) field in each line of the
             file must be the IP address and lines may be up to 255 characters in length.

     -c      Change the source of prefix-based whois data from the default (pWhoIs) to Cymru.
             See www.cymru.com for more details.  When used with the -f option, this switch
             causes whob to use Cymru whois for bulk file resolution instead of pwhois.

     -r      Display the Origin-AS and prefix according to RIPE NCC RIS (see
             www.ripe.net/projects/ris/).  When used with the -f option, this switch causes whob
             to use RIPE NCC riswhois for bulk file resolution instead of pwhois.

     -s      Show the status of the (respective) pWhoIs server and exit(0)

     -V      Display verbose/debug output.  Use multiple 'V's for additional verbosity.

     -v      Display this client's version information and exit(1)

     -me|whoami
             Display this host's public IP address and exit(0)

AUTHORS

     Victor Oppleman and Eugene Antsilevitch

REPORTING BUGS

     To report bugs, send e-mail to <whob@oppleman.com>

SEE ALSO

     lft(8), whois(1)

HISTORY

     The whob command first appeared in 2004.  This whois framework has been a component of LFT
     since 2002.