nslookup
nslookup
query Internet name servers interactively
nslookup -option name | - server

DESCRIPTION
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.

ARGUMENTS
Interactive mode is entered in the following cases:
when no arguments are given (the default name server will be used)
when the first argument is a hyphen (-) and the second argument is the host name or Internet address of a name server.
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

INTERACTIVE COMMANDS
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)
nodebug 	 Turn on or off the display of the full response packet and any intermediate response packets when searching.
(Default = nodebug; abbreviation = nodeb)
nod2 	 Turn debugging mode on or off. This displays more about what nslookup is doing.
(Default = nod2)
domain=name 	 Sets the search list to name.
nosearch 	 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 type of the information query.
(Default = A; abbreviations = q, ty)
norecurse 	 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.
novc 	 Always use a virtual circuit when sending requests to the server.
(Default = novc)
nofail 	 Try the next nameserver if a nameserver responds with SERVFAIL or a referral (nofail) or terminate query (fail) on such a response.
(Default = nofail)

FILES
/etc/resolv.conf

SEE ALSO
dig 1 , host 1 , named 8 .

Author
Andrew Cherenson