dnsquery(1M)                    TCP/IP R4.11                    dnsquery(1M)


NAME
       dnsquery - query domain name servers using resolver

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

DESCRIPTION
       The dnsquery program is a general interface to nameservers via DNS
       resolver 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 nslookup.  All arguments
       except for host and nameserver are treated without case-sensitivity.

OPTIONS
       -n        The nameserver to be used in the query.  Nameservers can
                 appear as either Internet addresses of the form w.x.y.z or
                 can appear as domain names.  (default: as specified in
                 /etc/resolv.conf)

       -t        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        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        The number of times to retry if the nameserver is not
                 responding.  (default:  4)

       -p        Period to wait before timing out.  (default: 5 secs)

       -d        Turn on debugging.  This sets the RES_DEBUG bit of the
                 resolver's options field.  (default:  no debugging)

       -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)

       -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

SEE ALSO
       named(1M), resolver(3C), resolv.conf(4M), nslookup(1M), dig(1M),
       host(1M)

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.

BUGS
       Queries of a class other than IN can have interesting results since
       ordinarily a nameserver only has a list of root nameservers for class
       IN resource records.

AUTHOR
       Bryan Beecher


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