Copyright (C) 2004 Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. ("ISC")
Copyright (C) 2000, 2001 Internet Software Consortium.
Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND ISC DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH
REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY
AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL ISC BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT,
INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM
LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE
OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR
PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
Nslookup is a program to query Internet domain name servers. Nslookup has two modes: interactive and non-interactive. Interactive mode allows the user to query name servers for information about various hosts and domains or to print a list of hosts in a domain. Non-interactive mode is used to print just the name and requested information for a host or domain.
Interactive mode is entered in the following cases:
Non-interactive mode is used when the name or Internet address of the host to be looked up is given as the first argument. The optional second argument specifies the host name or address of a name server.
Options can also be specified on the command line if they precede the arguments and are prefixed with a hyphen. For example, to change the default query type to host information, and the initial timeout to 10 seconds, type:
nslookup -query=hinfo -timeout=10
host [server] Look up information for host using the current default server or using server, if specified. If host is an Internet address and the query type is A or PTR, the name of the host is returned. If host is a name and does not have a trailing period, the search list is used to qualify the name. To look up a host not in the current domain, append a period to the name.
server domain
lserver domain Change the default server to domain; lserver uses the initial server to look up information about domain, while server uses the current default server. If an authoritative answer can't be found, the names of servers that might have the answer are returned.
root not implemented
finger not implemented
ls not implemented
view not implemented
help not implemented
? not implemented
exit Exits the program.
set keyword[=value] This command is used to change state information that affects the lookups. Valid keywords are:
all Prints the current values of the frequently used options to set. Information about the current default server and host is also printed.
class=value Change the query class to one of:
IN the Internet class
CH the Chaos class
HS the Hesiod class
ANY wildcard
The class specifies the protocol group of the information. (Default = IN; abbreviation = cl)
[no]debug Turn debugging mode on. A lot more information is printed about the packet sent to the server and the resulting answer. (Default = nodebug; abbreviation = [no]deb)
[no]d2 Turn debugging mode on. A lot more information is printed about the packet sent to the server and the resulting answer. (Default = nod2)
domain=name Sets the search list to name.
[no]search If the lookup request contains at least one period but doesn't end with a trailing period, append the domain names in the domain search list to the request until an answer is received. (Default = search)
port=value Change the default TCP/UDP name server port to value. (Default = 53; abbreviation = po)
querytype=value
type=value Change the top of the information query. (Default = A; abbreviations = q, ty)
[no]recurse Tell the name server to query other servers if it does not have the information. (Default = recurse; abbreviation = [no]rec)
retry=number Set the number of retries to number.
timeout=number Change the initial timeout interval for waiting for a reply to number seconds.
[no]vc Always use a virtual circuit when sending requests to the server. (Default = novc)
dig(1), host(1), named(8).
Andrew Cherenson