DNSQUERY(1)                        BSD      Reference      Manual
DNSQUERY(1)

NAME
     dnsquery - query domain name servers using resolver

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

DESCRIPTION
     The  dnsquery  program is a general interface to nameservers
via BIND re-
     solver 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 nameserver are treated without case-sen-
sitivity.

OPTIONS
     -n nameserver
                 The nameserver to be used in the  query.   Name-
servers can ap-
                 pear  as  either  Internet addresses of the form
(w.x.y.z or
                 xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx) or  can
appear as do-
                 main   names.    (Default:   as   specified   in
/etc/resolv.conf.)

     -t type     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 class    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 retry    The number of times to retry if  the  nameserver
is not re-
                 sponding.  (Default:  4.)

     -p  period    Period  to  wait before timing out.  (Default:
RES_TIMEOUT.)

     -d          Turn on debugging.  This sets the RES_DEBUG  bit
of the re-
                 solver's  options  field.   (Default:  no debug-
ging.)

     -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 datagram.)

     -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

DIAGNOSTICS
     If  the resolver fails to answer the query and debugging has
not been
     turned on, dnsquery will simply print a message like:
           Query failed (rc = 1): Unknown host

     The value of the return code is supplied by h_errno .

SEE ALSO
     nslookup(8),   nstest(1),    nsquery(1),    named(8),    re-
solver(5).

AUTHOR
     Bryan Beecher

BUGS
     Queries  of  a  class other than IN can have interesting re-
sults since ordi-
     narily a nameserver only has a list of root nameservers  for
class IN re-
     source records.

     Dnsquery  uses a call to inet_addr() to determine if the ar-
gument for the
     ``-n'' option is a valid Internet  address.   Unfortunately,
inet_addr()
     seems  to  cause a segmentation fault with some (bad) IP ad-
dresses (e.g.,
     1.2.3.4.5).

4th    Berkeley     Distribution           March     10,     1990
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