NAME
whois.conf – alternative WHOIS servers list for whois clientSYNOPSIS
/etc/whois.confDESCRIPTION
This file contains a list of WHOIS servers which can augment or override the built-in list of the client.It’s a plain text file in ASCII encoding. Each line consists of two fields: a pattern to match WHOIS object identifier and a corresponding WHOIS server domain name.
Fields are separated by non-empty sequence of space or a tabular characters. A line starting with a hash character is a free comment and it’s not considered.
The pattern is case-insensitive extended regular expression if whois client has been compiled with POSIX regular expressions support. Otherwise, simple case-insensitive suffix comparison against WHOIS object identifier is used.
Internationalized domain names (IDN) must be specified in ascii-compatible encoding (ACE) format.
EXAMPLE
\.nz$ nz.whois-servers.net# Hangul Korean TLD
\.xn--3e0b707e$ whois.kr
# Private ASNs
^as645(1[2-9]|2[0-9]|3[0-4])$ whois.example.net
FILES
/etc/whois.conf
Willie has over 15 years of experience in Linux system administration and DevOps. After managing infrastructure for startups and enterprises alike, he founded Command Linux to share the practical knowledge he wished he had when starting out. He oversees content strategy and contributes guides on server management, automation, and security.