-.TH WHOIS 1 "September 26, 1988"
-.UC 6
-.SH NAME
-whois \- DARPA Internet user name directory service
-.SH SYNOPSIS
-.B whois
-name
-.SH DESCRIPTION
-.TP
-whois help
-Produces a helpful message similar to the following:
-.PP
-Please enter a name or a handle (``ident"), such as ``Smith"
-or ``SRI-NIC".
-Starting with a period forces a name-only search;
-starting with exclamation point forces handle-only.
-Examples:
-.nf
- Smith [looks for name or handle SMITH ]
- !SRI-NIC [looks for handle SRI-NIC only ]
- .Smith, John [looks for name JOHN SMITH only ]
-.fi
-Adding ``..." to the argument will match anything from that point,
-e.g. ``ZU..." will match ZUL, ZUM, etc.
-.PP
-To have the ENTIRE membership list of a group or organization,
-if you are asking about a group or org, shown with the record, use
-an asterisk character `*' directly preceding the given argument.
-[CAUTION: If there are a lot of members this will take a long time!]
-You may of course use exclamation point and asterisk, or a period
-and asterisk together.
-.SH SEE ALSO
-RFC 812: Nicname/Whois
+.\" @(#)whois.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
+.\"
+.Dd June 6, 1993
+.Dt WHOIS 1
+.Os BSD 4.3
+.Sh NAME
+.Nm whois
+.Nd Internet user name directory service
+.Sh SYNOPSIS
+.Nm whois
+.Op Fl h Ar hostname
+.Ar name ...
+.Sh DESCRIPTION
+.Nm Whois
+looks up records in the Network Information Center
+.Pq Tn NIC
+database.
+.Pp
+The options are as follows:
+.Bl -tag -width Ds
+.It Fl h
+Use the specified host instead of the default NIC (nic.ddn.mil).
+.El
+.Pp
+The operands specified to
+.Nm whois
+are concatenated together (separated by white-space) and presented to
+the
+.Nm whois
+server.
+.Pp
+The default action, unless directed otherwise with a special
+.Ar name ,
+is to do a very broad search, looking for matches to
+.Ar name
+in all types of records and most fields (name, nicknames, hostname, net
+address, etc.) in the database.
+For more information as to what
+.Ar name
+operands have special meaning, and how to guide the search, use
+the special name
+.Dq Ar help .
+.Sh SEE ALSO
+RFC 812: Nicname/Whois
+.Sh HISTORY
+The
+.Nm whois
+command appeared in
+.Bx 4.3 .