diff --git a/srcpkgs/mkpasswd b/srcpkgs/mkpasswd
new file mode 120000
index 00000000000..2c656a9178a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/srcpkgs/mkpasswd
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+whois
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/srcpkgs/whois/mkpasswd.rshlibs b/srcpkgs/whois/mkpasswd.rshlibs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e21903fd3ef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/srcpkgs/whois/mkpasswd.rshlibs
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+libcrypt.so.1
+libc.so.6
diff --git a/srcpkgs/whois/mkpasswd.template b/srcpkgs/whois/mkpasswd.template
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..65a6ecda59b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/srcpkgs/whois/mkpasswd.template
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+# Template file for 'mkpasswd'.
+#
+depends="mkpasswd"
+short_desc="An interface to crypt(3) to generate random passwords"
+long_desc="
+ mkpasswd generates passwords and can (optionally) apply them automatically to
+ users.  mkpasswd is based on the code from Chapter 23 of the OReilly book:
+ Exploring Expect"
+
+do_install()
+{
+        vmove usr/bin/mkpasswd usr/bin
+	vmove usr/share/man/man1/mkpasswd.1 usr/share/man/man1
+	vinstall COPYING 644 usr/share/licenses/${pkgname}
+}
diff --git a/srcpkgs/whois/template b/srcpkgs/whois/template
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..c9b2aa3d85d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/srcpkgs/whois/template
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+# Template file for 'whois'
+pkgname=whois
+version=5.0.19
+revision=1
+build_style=gnu-makefile
+make_install_args="prefix=/usr BASEDIR=${XBPS_DESTDIR}/${pkgname}-${version} install-whois"
+makedepends="perl libidn-devel"
+short_desc="The whois client by Marco d Itri"
+maintainer="davehome <davehome@redthumb.info.tm>"
+homepage="http://www.linux.it/~md/software"
+license="GPL-2"
+distfiles="http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/w/${pkgname}/${pkgname}_${version}.tar.xz"
+checksum=6fc08910aefe10c3855e12eb400e8b8d5d5c7cf174bd716baf191e3a2d25854a
+long_desc="
+ whois is an improved whois client. It is part of Debian, Mandriva, SuSE, PLD
+ and other Linux distributions."
+
+do_build() {
+	# This is needed to set CFLAGS properly
+	make ${makejobs} prefix=/usr CFLAGS="${XBPS_CFLAGS}" HAVE_LIBIDN=1
+}
+
+post_install() {
+	vinstall COPYING 644 usr/share/licenses/${pkgname}
+
+}
+
+# for some reason, the mkpasswd utility is part of this pkg, so I split it out
+subpackages="mkpasswd"
+
diff --git a/srcpkgs/whois/whois.rshlibs b/srcpkgs/whois/whois.rshlibs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..631aa1dda40
--- /dev/null
+++ b/srcpkgs/whois/whois.rshlibs
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+libc.so.6