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.

WHOB                                             August 17, 2002                                         WHOB(8)