dig man page on 4.4BSD

Man page or keyword search:  
man Server   1065 pages
apropos Keyword Search (all sections)
Output format
4.4BSD logo
[printable version]

DIG(1)									DIG(1)

NAME
       dig - send domain name query packets to name servers

SYNOPSIS
       dig  [@server]  domain [<query-type>] [<query-class>] [+<query-option>]
       [-<dig-option>] [%comment]

DESCRIPTION
       Dig (domain information groper) is a flexible command line  tool	 which
       can  be used to gather information from the Domain Name System servers.
       Dig has two modes: simple interactive mode which makes a single	query,
       and  batch  which  executes a query for each in a list of several query
       lines. All query options are accessible from the command line.

       The usual simple use of dig will take the form:

	    dig	 @server  domain   query-type  query-class

       where:

       server may be either a domain name or a dot-notation Internet  address.
	      If  this	optional field is omitted, dig will attempt to use the
	      default name server for your machine.

	      Note: If a domain name is specified, this will be resolved using
	      the  domain  name	 system	 resolver (i.e., BIND). If your system
	      does not support DNS,  you may have to  specify  a  dot-notation
	      address.	 Alternatively,	 if there is a server at your disposal
	      somewhere,  all that is required	is  that  /etc/resolv.conf  be
	      present and indicate where the default name servers  reside,  so
	      that  server itself can be resolved. See resolver(5) for	infor‐
	      mation on /etc/resolv.conf.  (WARNING: Changing /etc/resolv.conf
	      will affect the standard	resolver library and  potentially sev‐
	      eral  programs which use it.) As an option, the user may set the
	      environment variable LOCALRES to name a file which is to be used
	      instead  of  /etc/resolv.conf  (LOCALRES	is specific to the dig
	      resolver and  not referenced by the standard resolver).  If  the
	      LOCALRES	variable  is  not set or the file is not readable then
	      /etc/resolv.conf will be used.

       domain is the domain name for which  you	 are  requesting  information.
	      See  OPTIONS  [-x] for convenient way to specify inverse address
	      query.

       query-type
	      is the type  of  information  (DNS  query	 type)	that  you  are
	      requesting. If omitted, the default is "a" (T_A = address).  The
	      following types are recognized:

	      a	     T_A      network address
	      any    T_ANY    all/any information about specified domain
	      mx     T_MX     mail exchanger for the domain
	      ns     T_NS     name servers
	      soa    T_SOA    zone of authority record
	      hinfo  T_HINFO  host information
	      axfr   T_AXFR   zone transfer
			       (must ask an authoritative server)
	      txt    T_TXT    arbitrary number of strings

	      (See RFC 1035 for the complete list.)

       query-class
	      is the network class requested in the  query.  If	 omitted,  the
	      default  is  "in"	 (C_IN = Internet).  The following classes are
	      recognized:

	      in     C_IN     Internet class domain
	      any    C_ANY    all/any class information

	      (See RFC 1035 for the complete list.)

	      Note: "Any" can be used to specify a  class  and/or  a  type  of
	      query.  Dig  will	 parse	the  first occurrence of "any" to mean
	      query-type = T_ANY. To specify  query-class  =  C_ANY  you  must
	      either specify "any" twice, or set query-class using "-c" option
	      (see below).

OTHER OPTIONS
       %ignored-comment
	      "%" is used to included an argument that is simply  not  parsed.
	      This  may	 be  useful   if running dig in batch mode. Instead of
	      resolving every @server-domain-name in a list  of	 queries,  you
	      can  avoid  the  overhead of doing so, and still have the domain
	      name on the command line as a reference. Example:

		     dig  @128.9.0.32  %venera.isi.edu	mx  isi.edu

       -<dig option>
	      "-" is used to specify an option which effects the operation  of
	      dig. The following options are currently available (although not
	      guaranteed to be useful):

	      -x dot-notation-address
		     Convenient	 form  to  specify  inverse  address  mapping.
		     Instead  of  "dig 32.0.9.128.in-addr.arpa" one can simply
		     "dig -x 128.9.0.32".

	      -f file
		     File for dig batch mode. The  file	 contains  a  list  of
		     query  specifications (dig command lines) which are to be
		     executed successively. Lines beginning with ';', '#',  or
		     '\n'  are ignored. Other options may still appear on com‐
		     mand line, and will be in effect for each batch query.

	      -T time
		     Time in seconds between start of successive queries  when
		     running  in  batch	 mode. Can be used to keep two or more
		     batch dig commands running roughly in  sync.  Default  is
		     zero.

	      -p port
		     Port number. Query a name server listening to a non-stan‐
		     dard port number. Default is 53.

	      -P[ping-string]
		     After  query  returns,  execute  a	 ping(8)  command  for
		     response time comparison. This rather unelegantly makes a
		     call to the shell. The last three lines of statistics  is
		     printed for the command:

			    ping -s server_name 56 3

		     If	 the  optional	"ping  string" is present, it replaces
		     "ping -s" in the shell command.

	      -t query-type
		     Specify type of query.  May  specify  either  an  integer
		     value  to be included in the type field or use the abbre‐
		     viated mnemonic as discussed above (i.e., mx  = T_MX).

	      -c query-class
		     Specify class of query. May  specify  either  an  integer
		     value to be included in the class field or use the abbre‐
		     viated mnemonic as discussed above (i.e., in = C_IN).

	      -envsav
		     This flag specifies that the dig  environment  (defaults,
		     print  options,  etc.),  after  all  of the arguments are
		     parsed, should be saved to a file to become  the  default
		     environment.   Useful if you do not like the standard set
		     of defaults and do not desire to include a	 large	number
		     of	 options  each time dig is used.  The environment con‐
		     sists of resolver	state  variable	 flags,	 timeout,  and
		     retries  as  well	as the flags detailing dig output (see
		     below).  If the shell environment	variable  LOCALDEF  is
		     set  to the name of a file, this is where the default dig
		     environment is saved. If not, the file "DiG.env" is  cre‐
		     ated in the current working directory.

		     Note:  LOCALDEF is specific to the dig resolver, and will
		     not affect operation of the standard resolver library.

		     Each time dig is executed, it looks  for  "./DiG.env"  or
		     the  file	specified  by  the  shell environment variable
		     LOCALDEF. If such file exists and is readable,  then  the
		     environment  is  restored from this file before any argu‐
		     ments are parsed.

	      -envset
		     This flag only affects batch query runs.  When  "-envset"
		     is specified on a line in a dig batch file, the dig envi‐
		     ronment after  the	 arguments  are	 parsed,  becomes  the
		     default  environment  for the duration of the batch file,
		     or until the next line which specifies "-envset".

	      -[no]stick
		     This flag only affects batch query	 runs.	 It  specifies
		     that  the	dig  environment  (as read initially or set by
		     "-envset" switch) is to be	 restored  before  each	 query
		     (line) in a dig batch file.  The default "-nostick" means
		     that the dig environment does not	stick,	hence  options
		     specified	on  a  single  line  in	 a dig batch file will
		     remain in effect for subsequent lines (i.e. they are  not
		     restored to the "sticky" default).

       +<query option>
	      "+"  is  used  to	 specify  an option to be changed in the query
	      packet or to change dig output specifics. Many of these are  the
	      same  parameters accepted by nslookup(1).	 If an option requires
	      a parameter, the form is as follows:

		     +keyword[=value]

	      Most keywords can be abbreviated.	 Parsing of  the  "+"  options
	      is  very	 simplistic  —	a value must not be separated from its
	      keyword by white space. The  following  keywords	are  currently
	      available:

	      Keyword	   Abbrev. Meaning [default]

	      [no]debug	   (deb)   turn on/off debugging mode [deb]
	      [no]d2		   turn on/off extra debugging mode [nod2]
	      [no]recurse  (rec)   use/don't use recursive lookup [rec]
	      retry=#	   (ret)   set number of retries to # [4]
	      time=#	   (ti)	   set timeout length to # seconds [4]
	      [no]ko		   keep open option (implies vc) [noko]
	      [no]vc		   use/don't use virtual circuit [novc]
	      [no]defname  (def)   use/don't use default domain name [def]
	      [no]search   (sea)   use/don't use domain search list [sea]
	      domain=NAME  (do)	   set default domain name to NAME
	      [no]ignore   (i)	   ignore/don't ignore trunc. errors [noi]
	      [no]primary  (pr)	    use/don't use primary server [nopr]
	      [no]aaonly   (aa)	   authoritative query only flag [noaa]
	      [no]sort	   (sor)   sort resource records [nosor]
	      [no]cmd		   echo parsed arguments [cmd]
	      [no]stats	   (st)	   print query statistics [st]
	      [no]Header   (H)	   print basic header [H]
	      [no]header   (he)	   print header flags [he]
	      [no]ttlid	   (tt)	   print TTLs [tt]
	      [no]cl		   print class info [nocl]
	      [no]qr		   print outgoing query [noqr]
	      [no]reply	   (rep)   print reply [rep]
	      [no]ques	   (qu)	   print question section [qu]
	      [no]answer   (an)	   print answer section [an]
	      [no]author   (au)	   print authoritative section [au]
	      [no]addit	   (ad)	   print additional section [ad]
	      pfdef		   set to default print flags
	      pfmin		   set to minimal default print flags
	      pfset=#		   set print flags to #
				   (# can be hex/octal/decimal)
	      pfand=#		   bitwise and print flags with #
	      pfor=#		   bitwise or print flags with #

	      The  retry  and  time options affect the retransmission strategy
	      used by resolver library	when  sending  datagram	 queries.  The
	      algorithm is as follows:

		   for i = 0 to retry - 1
		       for j = 1 to num_servers
				send_query
				wait((time * (2**i)) / num_servers)
		       end
		   end

	      (Note: dig always uses a value of 1 for num_servers.)

DETAILS
       Dig  once  required a slightly modified version of the BIND resolver(3)
       library.	 BIND's resolver has (as of BIND 4.9) been augmented  to  work
       properly	 with Dig.  Essentially, Dig is a straight-forward (albeit not
       pretty) effort of parsing arguments and setting appropriate parameters.
       Dig  uses  resolver  routines  res_init(), res_mkquery(), res_send() as
       well as accessing _res structure.

FILES
       /etc/resolv.conf	 initial domain name and name server
			 addresses

ENVIRONMENT
       LOCALRES		 file to use in place of /etc/resolv.conf
       LOCALDEF		 default environment file

AUTHOR
       Steve Hotz hotz@isi.edu

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
       Dig uses functions from nslookup(1) authored by Andrew Cherenson.

BUGS
       Dig has a serious case of "creeping featurism" -- the result of consid‐
       ering  several potential uses during it's development.  It would proba‐
       bly benefit from a rigorous diet.  Similarly, the print flags and gran‐
       ularity of the items they specify make evident their rather ad hoc gen‐
       esis.

       Dig does not consistently exit nicely (with appropriate status) when  a
       problem occurs somewhere in the resolver (NOTE: most of the common exit
       cases are handled).  This is  particularly  annoying  when  running  in
       batch  mode.   If  it  exits abnormally (and is not caught), the entire
       batch aborts; when such an event is trapped, dig simply continues  with
       the next query.

SEE ALSO
       named(8),  resolver(3),	resolver(5),  nslookup(1)

				August 30, 1990				DIG(1)
[top]

List of man pages available for 4.4BSD

Copyright (c) for man pages and the logo by the respective OS vendor.

For those who want to learn more, the polarhome community provides shell access and support.

[legal] [privacy] [GNU] [policy] [cookies] [netiquette] [sponsors] [FAQ]
Tweet
Polarhome, production since 1999.
Member of Polarhome portal.
Based on Fawad Halim's script.
....................................................................
Vote for polarhome
Free Shell Accounts :: the biggest list on the net