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WHOB(8)			    System Manager's Manual		       WHOB(8)

NAME
       whob  --	 display whois-type information	of interest to Internet	opera-
       tors

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 func-
       tionality can be	added directly into your programs (see whois.h).

       The only	mandatory parameter is the target host name or IP number.  Op-
       tions 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  Ori-
	       gin-AS.	 The Origin-AS may be supplied as the target argument,
	       or a hostname or	IP address may be supplied and whob  will  re-
	       solve 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 di-
	       rectly from the command line and	passes it without modification
	       to pWhoIs or whatever whois server is requested (-h).  The  ex-
	       act  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 Ar-
	       biter 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 alloca-
	       tion 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 ini-
	       tial, least specific ASN	received from the operator of the net-
	       work to which it	is connected (unless that ASN is the only/ori-
	       gin 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 in-
	       put 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 charac-
	       ters 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)

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