Usage: whois-srv [-H] [-d] [-b|-w] [-s service] [-h host] [-p port] key Options: -h host Whois server locator. Default: whois.ripe.net [0][2] -p port Port to send query to. Default: SRV RR else -s [1] -s service Whois service symbolic name. Default: whois -H Display this help and exit -d Enable debugging output -b Boring mode. Act like a normal client, ignore SRVs -w Wacky mode. Guess SRVs from query string This client respects SRV record priorities. Because it makes one query per invocation SRV weights are meaningless and are ignored. [0] SRV records abstract service locator names in the place of DNS hostnames. For example it is possible with SRVs to say ``the whois service of whois.foo.com is provided by a host called bigserver.isp.net on port 756'', should one wish. Therefore in SRV mode this client initially uses the value of -h, or its default, to form an SRV query. The SRV record itself will then tell us what real host to contact. Should there be no SRV record, or if called using -b, this client will treat -h, or its default, as the name of the host to query. That is, it reverts to the behaviour of a ``normal'' client. [1] The port to connect may be determind in one of three ways. In order of precedence they are: 1. specified by -p 2. retrieved in an SRV record, if applicable 3. the port found for -s, or its default, by getservbyname() [2] In wacky mode -h, or its default, is used as the name of the host to query if no SRV RRs can be found.