How to run the WHOIS Daemon?

You can run the whois daemon (on the server) to
see what it does:

[3:27pm julian] echo reggers | /usr/lib/whois/whoisd
There were 1 matches on your request.

Full Name: Quinton, Reg
Department: Info Tech Svcs
Room: NSC 214
Phone: 679-2111x(6026)
Index Key: 481800
Machine Address: reggers@julian.uuu.com
Directory Addresses: reg.quinton@uuu.com
: r.quinton@uuu.com
: reggers@uuu.com
: quinton@uuu.com

For more information try 'whois help'.

The program is command driven -- you give a command (or query string) on stdin, it produces results on stdout, and exits.

Connecting to the Server:

You can make a telnet(1) connection to
the whois service on the server.

[3:47pm julian] telnet julian whois
Trying 129.100.2.12 ... Connected to julian.
Escape character is '^]'.
reggers .... my command input
There were 1 matches on your request.

Full Name: Quinton, Reg
Department: Info Tech Svcs
Room: NSC 214
Phone: 679-2111x(6026)
Index Key: 481800
Machine Address: reggers@julian.uuu.com
Directory Addresses: reg.quinton@uuu.com
: r.quinton@uuu.com
: reggers@uuu.com
: quinton@uuu.com

For more information try 'whois help'.
Connection closed by foreign host.