dnsquery

NAME

       dnsquery - query domain name servers using resolver

SYNOPSIS

       dnsquery  [-n  nameserver] [-t type] [-c class] [-r retry]
       [-p retry period] [-d] [-s] [-v] host

DESCRIPTION

       The dnsquery program is a general interface to nameservers
       via  BIND  resolver  library  calls.  The program supports
       queries to the nameserver with an opcode of  QUERY.   This
       program  is  intended to be a replacement or supplement to
       programs like nstest, nsquery and nslookup.  All arguments
       except   for   host  and  ns  are  treated  without  case-
       sensitivity.

OPTIONS

       -n        The nameserver to be used in the  query.   Name-
                 servers  can appear as either Internet addresses
                 of the form w.x.y.z  or  can  appear  as  domain
                 names.      (default:     as     specified    in
                 /etc/resolv.conf)

       -t        The type of resource record of interest.   Types
                 include:

                      A         address
                      NS        nameserver
                      CNAME     canonical name
                      PTR       domain name pointer
                      SOA       start of authority
                      WKS       well-known service
                      HINFO     host information
                      MINFO     mailbox information
                      MX        mail exchange
                      RP        responsible person
                      MG        mail group member
                      AFSDB
                                DCE or AFS server
                      ANY       wildcard

                 Note that any case may be used.  (default:  ANY)

       -c        The  class  of  resource  records  of  interest.
                 Classes include:

                           IN        Internet
                           HS        Hesiod
                           CHAOS     Chaos
                           ANY       wildcard

                 Note that any case may be used.  (default:  IN)

       -r        The  number  of times to retry if the nameserver
                 is not responding.  (default:  4)

       -p        Period to wait  before  timing  out.   (default:
                 RES_TIMEOUT)   options  field.   (default:   any
                 answer)

       -d        Turn on debugging.  This sets the RES_DEBUG  bit
                 of  the resolver's options field.  (default:  no
                 debugging)

       -s        Use a stream rather than a packet.  This uses  a
                 TCP stream connection with the nameserver rather
                 than a UDP datagram.  This  sets  the  RES_USEVC
                 bit  of the resolver's options field.  (default:
                 UDP)

       -v        Synonym for the 's' flag.

       host      The name of the host (or domain) of interest.

FILES

       /etc/resolv.conf    to get the default ns and search lists
       <arpa/nameser.h>    list of usable RR types and classes
       <resolv.h>          list of resolver flags

SEE ALSO

       nslookup(8), nstest(1), nsquery(1), named(8), resolver(5)

DIAGNOSTICS

       If  the  resolver  fails to answer the query and debugging
       has not been turned on, dnsquery will simply print a  mes-
       sage like:

       Query failed (rc = 1) : Unknown host

       The value of the return code is supplied by h_errno.

BUGS

       Queries  of  a  class  other  than IN can have interesting
       results since ordinarily a nameserver only has a  list  of
       root nameservers for class IN resource records.

       Query uses a call to inet_addr() to determine if the argu-
       ment for the '-n' option  is  a  valid  Internet  address.
       Unfortunately,  inet_addr()  seems to cause a segmentation
       fault with some (bad) addresses (e.g. 1.2.3.4.5).

AUTHOR

       Bryan Beecher