xref: /netbsd-src/external/mpl/bind/dist/bin/dig/nslookup.rst (revision 9fd8799cb5ceb66c69f2eb1a6d26a1d587ba1f1e)
1..
2   Copyright (C) Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. ("ISC")
3
4   This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
5   License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
6   file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
7
8   See the COPYRIGHT file distributed with this work for additional
9   information regarding copyright ownership.
10
11..
12   Copyright (C) Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. ("ISC")
13
14   This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
15   License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
16   file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
17
18   See the COPYRIGHT file distributed with this work for additional
19   information regarding copyright ownership.
20
21
22.. highlight: console
23
24.. _man_nslookup:
25
26nslookup - query Internet name servers interactively
27----------------------------------------------------
28
29Synopsis
30~~~~~~~~
31
32:program:`nslookup` [-option] [name | -] [server]
33
34Description
35~~~~~~~~~~~
36
37``Nslookup`` is a program to query Internet domain name servers.
38``Nslookup`` has two modes: interactive and non-interactive. Interactive
39mode allows the user to query name servers for information about various
40hosts and domains or to print a list of hosts in a domain.
41Non-interactive mode is used to print just the name and requested
42information for a host or domain.
43
44Arguments
45~~~~~~~~~
46
47Interactive mode is entered in the following cases:
48
49a. when no arguments are given (the default name server will be used)
50
51b. when the first argument is a hyphen (-) and the second argument is
52   the host name or Internet address of a name server.
53
54Non-interactive mode is used when the name or Internet address of the
55host to be looked up is given as the first argument. The optional second
56argument specifies the host name or address of a name server.
57
58Options can also be specified on the command line if they precede the
59arguments and are prefixed with a hyphen. For example, to change the
60default query type to host information, and the initial timeout to 10
61seconds, type:
62
63::
64
65   nslookup -query=hinfo  -timeout=10
66
67The ``-version`` option causes ``nslookup`` to print the version number
68and immediately exits.
69
70Interactive Commands
71~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
72
73``host`` [server]
74   Look up information for host using the current default server or
75   using server, if specified. If host is an Internet address and the
76   query type is A or PTR, the name of the host is returned. If host is
77   a name and does not have a trailing period, the search list is used
78   to qualify the name.
79
80   To look up a host not in the current domain, append a period to the
81   name.
82
83``server`` domain | ``lserver`` domain
84   Change the default server to domain; ``lserver`` uses the initial
85   server to look up information about domain, while ``server`` uses the
86   current default server. If an authoritative answer can't be found,
87   the names of servers that might have the answer are returned.
88
89``root``
90   not implemented
91
92``finger``
93   not implemented
94
95``ls``
96   not implemented
97
98``view``
99   not implemented
100
101``help``
102   not implemented
103
104``?``
105   not implemented
106
107``exit``
108   Exits the program.
109
110``set`` keyword[=value]
111   This command is used to change state information that affects the
112   lookups. Valid keywords are:
113
114   ``all``
115      Prints the current values of the frequently used options to
116      ``set``. Information about the current default server and host is
117      also printed.
118
119   ``class=``\ value
120      Change the query class to one of:
121
122      ``IN``
123         the Internet class
124
125      ``CH``
126         the Chaos class
127
128      ``HS``
129         the Hesiod class
130
131      ``ANY``
132         wildcard
133
134      The class specifies the protocol group of the information.
135
136      (Default = IN; abbreviation = cl)
137
138   ``nodebug``
139      Turn on or off the display of the full response packet and any
140      intermediate response packets when searching.
141
142      (Default = nodebug; abbreviation = [no]deb)
143
144   ``nod2``
145      Turn debugging mode on or off. This displays more about what
146      nslookup is doing.
147
148      (Default = nod2)
149
150   ``domain=``\ name
151      Sets the search list to name.
152
153   ``nosearch``
154      If the lookup request contains at least one period but doesn't end
155      with a trailing period, append the domain names in the domain
156      search list to the request until an answer is received.
157
158      (Default = search)
159
160   ``port=``\ value
161      Change the default TCP/UDP name server port to value.
162
163      (Default = 53; abbreviation = po)
164
165   ``querytype=``\ value | ``type=``\ value
166      Change the type of the information query.
167
168      (Default = A and then AAAA; abbreviations = q, ty)
169
170      **Note:** It is only possible to specify one query type, only the default
171        behavior looks up both when an alternative is not specified.
172
173   ``norecurse``
174      Tell the name server to query other servers if it does not have
175      the information.
176
177      (Default = recurse; abbreviation = [no]rec)
178
179   ``ndots=``\ number
180      Set the number of dots (label separators) in a domain that will
181      disable searching. Absolute names always stop searching.
182
183   ``retry=``\ number
184      Set the number of retries to number.
185
186   ``timeout=``\ number
187      Change the initial timeout interval for waiting for a reply to
188      number seconds.
189
190   ``novc``
191      Always use a virtual circuit when sending requests to the server.
192
193      (Default = novc)
194
195   ``nofail``
196      Try the next nameserver if a nameserver responds with SERVFAIL or
197      a referral (nofail) or terminate query (fail) on such a response.
198
199      (Default = nofail)
200
201Return Values
202~~~~~~~~~~~~~
203
204``nslookup`` returns with an exit status of 1 if any query failed, and 0
205otherwise.
206
207IDN Support
208~~~~~~~~~~~
209
210If ``nslookup`` has been built with IDN (internationalized domain name)
211support, it can accept and display non-ASCII domain names. ``nslookup``
212appropriately converts character encoding of domain name before sending
213a request to DNS server or displaying a reply from the server. If you'd
214like to turn off the IDN support for some reason, define the IDN_DISABLE
215environment variable. The IDN support is disabled if the variable is set
216when ``nslookup`` runs or when the standard output is not a tty.
217
218Files
219~~~~~
220
221``/etc/resolv.conf``
222
223See Also
224~~~~~~~~
225
226:manpage:`dig(1)`, :manpage:`host(1)`, :manpage:`named(8)`.
227