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nslookup(8) System Manager's Manual nslookup(8) NAME nslookup - Queries Internet name servers interactively SYNOPSIS nslookup [-option ...] [host-to-find |- [server]] DESCRIPTION The nslookup command is a program that is used to query Internet domain name servers. The nslookup command has two modes: interactive and non- interactive. Noninteractive mode is used to print just the name and requested information for a host or domain. Noninteractive mode is in- voked 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 hostname or address of a name server. 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. Interactive mode is invoked when you specify nslookup without arguments (the default name server will be used), or when the first argument you specify is a - (dash) and the second argument is the hostname or Internet address of a name server. The options listed under the set command can be specified in the .nslookuprc file in the user's home directory if they are listed one per line. Options can also be specified on the command line if they precede the arguments and are prefixed with a - (dash). For example, to change the default query type to host information, and the initial time-out to 10 seconds, enter: nslookup -query=hinfo -timeout=10 Interactive Commands Commands may be interrupted at any time by entering <Ctrl-c>. To exit, enter <Ctrl-d> (EOF) or type exit. The command line length must be less than 256 characters. To treat a built-in command as a hostname, precede it with an escape character \ (backslash). Note that an unrec- ognized command will be interpreted as a hostname. 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 default domain name is appended to the name. (This behavior depends on the state of the set options do- main, srchlist, defname, and search). To look up a host not in the current domain, append a . (dot) to the name. Change the default server to domain. lserver uses the initial server to look up informa- tion about domain, while server uses the current default server. If an authoritative answer cannot be found, the names of servers that might have the answer are returned. Changes the default server to the server for the root of the domain name space. Currently, the host ns.inter- nic.net is used. (This command is a synonym for lserver ns.inter- nic.net.) The name of the root server can be changed with the set root command. Connect with the finger server on the current host. The cur- rent host is defined when a previous lookup for a host was successful and returned address information (see the set querytype=A command). name is optional. The> and >> (redirection symbols) can be used to redirect output in the usual manner. List the information available for domain, optionally creating or appending to filename. The default output contains hostnames and their Internet addresses. option can be one of the following: Lists all records of the specified type (see querytype later in this reference page). Lists aliases of hosts in the domain. This option is a synonym for -t CNAME. Lists all records for the domain. This option is a synonym for -t ANY. Lists CPU and oper- ating system information for the domain. This option is a synonym for -t HINFO. Lists well-known services of hosts in the domain. This op- tion is a synonym for -t WKS. When output is directed to a file, # (number signs) are printed for every 50 records received from the server. Sorts and lists the output of previous ls command(s) with more. Prints a brief summary of commands. Exits the program. This command is used to change state information that affects the lookups. Valid keywords are: Prints the current values of the frequently used options to set. Information about the current default server and host is also printed. Changes the query class to one of: The Internet class. The Chaos class. The MIT Athena Hesiod class. Wildcard (any of the above). The class specifies the protocol group of the informa- tion. (Default = IN, abbreviation = cl) Turns 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) Turns exhaustive debugging mode on. Essentially all fields of every packet are printed. (Default = nod2) Changes the default domain name to name. The default domain name is appended to a lookup request depending on the state of the defname and search options. The domain search list contains the parents of the default domain if it has at least two com- ponents in its name. For example, if the default domain is CC.Berke- ley.EDU, the search list is CC.Berkeley.EDU and Berkeley.EDU. Use the set srchlist command to specify a different list. Use the set all com- mand to display the list. (Default = value from hostname, /etc/re- solv.conf or LOCALDOMAIN, abbreviation = do) Changes the default domain name to name1 and the domain search list to name1, name2, and so on. A maximum of 6 names separated by / (slashes) can be specified: For exam- ple: set srchlist=lcs.MIT.EDU/ai.MIT.EDU/MIT.EDU sets the domain to lcs.MIT.EDU and the search list to the three names. This command over- rides the default domain name and search list of the set domain com- mand. Use the set all command to display the list. (Default = value based on hostname, /etc/resolv.conf or LOCALDOMAIN, abbreviation = srchl) If set, appends the default domain name to a single-component lookup request (that is, one that does not contain a dot). (Default = defname, abbreviation = [no]def) If the lookup request contains at least one . (dot) but does not end with a trailing dot, append the do- main names in the domain search list to the request until an answer is received. (Default = search, abbreviation = [no]sea) Changes the de- fault TCP/UDP name server port to value. (Default = 53, abbreviation = po) Change the type of information query to one of: The host's Internet address. The canonical name for an alias. The host CPU and operating system type. The mailbox or mail list information. The mail ex- changer. The name server for the named zone. The hostname if the query is an Internet address; otherwise the pointer to other informa- tion. The domain's start-of-authority information. The text informa- tion. The user information. The supported well-known services. Other types (ANY, AXFR, MB, MD, MF, NULL) are described in the RFC1035 docu- ment. (Default = A, abbreviations = q, ty) Tells the name server to query other servers if it does not have the information. (Default = recurse, abbreviation = [no]rec) Sets the number of retries to number. When a reply to a request is not received within a certain amount of time (changed with set time-out), the timeout period is doubled and the request is resent. The retry value controls how many times a request is resent before giving up. (Default = 4, abbreviation = ret) Changes the name of the root server to host. This affects the root command. (Default = ns.internic.net., abbreviation = ro) Changes the initial timeout interval for waiting for a reply to number seconds. Each retry doubles the timeout period. (Default = 5 seconds, abbreviation = ti) Always use a virtual circuit when sending requests to the server. (De- fault = novc, abbreviation = [no]v) Ignore packet truncation errors. (Default = noignoretc, abbreviation = [no]ig) DIAGNOSTICS If the lookup request was not successful, an error message is printed. Possible errors are: The server did not respond to a request after a certain amount of time (changed with set timeout=value) and a certain number of retries (changed with set retry=value). No name server is running on the server machine. The server does not have resource records of the current query type for the host, although the hostname is valid. The query type is specified with the set querytype command. The host or domain name does not exist. The connection to the name or finger server could not be made at the current time. This error com- monly occurs with ls and finger requests. The name server found an in- ternal inconsistency in its database and could not return a valid an- swer. The name server refused to service the request. The name server found that the request packet was not in the proper format. It may in- dicate an error in nslookup. FILES Specifies the command path Initial domain name and name server ad- dresses User's initial options Summary of commands RELATED INFORMATION Commands: named(8) Functions: resolver(4) Files: resolv.conf(4) Specifications: RFC1034, RFC1035 delim off nslookup(8)