RHEL 6 Deployment - 10.5. Using the dig Utility

	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Essentials eBook now available in PDF and ePub formats for only $9.99 RHEL 6 Essentials contains 40 chapters and over 250 pages.

10.5. Using the `dig` Utility

The dig utility is a command line tool that allows you to perform DNS lookups and debug a nameserver configuration. Its typical usage is as follows:

dig [@server] [option...] name type

Refer to Section 10.3.2, “Common Resource Records” for a list of common types.

10.5.1. Looking Up a Nameserver

To look up a nameserver for a particular domain, use the command in the following form:

dig name NS

In Example 10.17, “A Sample Nameserver Lookup”, the dig utility is used to display nameservers for example.com.

Example 10.17. A Sample Nameserver Lookup

~]$ dig example.com NS

; <<>> DiG 9.7.1-P2-RedHat-9.7.1-2.P2.fc13 <<>> example.com NS
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 57883
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;example.com.                   IN      NS

;; ANSWER SECTION:
example.com.            99374   IN      NS      a.iana-servers.net.
example.com.            99374   IN      NS      b.iana-servers.net.

;; Query time: 1 msec
;; SERVER: 10.34.255.7#53(10.34.255.7)
;; WHEN: Wed Aug 18 18:04:06 2010
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 77