Dig

dig (domain information groper) is a network administration command-line tool for querying Domain Name System (DNS) name servers.

Example usage

Retrieve the A record

In this example, dig is used to query for A type of record information in the domain example.com:

Command line:

dig example.com a

Output:

; <<>> DiG 9.6.1 <<>> example.com any
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 4016
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 4, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

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

;; ANSWER SECTION:
<b>example.com.            172719  IN      A       208.77.188.166</b>

;; Query time: 1 msec
;; SERVER: ::1#53(::1)
;; WHEN: Wed Aug 12 11:40:43 2009
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 154

Queries may be directed to designated DNS servers for specific records; in this example, MX records:

Command:

dig wikimedia.org MX @ns0.wikimedia.org

Output:

; <<>> DiG 9.6.1 <<>> wikimedia.org MX @ns0.wikimedia.org
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 61144
;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 2
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;wikimedia.org.                 IN      MX

;; ANSWER SECTION:
wikimedia.org.          3600    IN      MX      10 mchenry.wikimedia.org.
wikimedia.org.          3600    IN      MX      50 lists.wikimedia.org.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
mchenry.wikimedia.org.  3600    IN      A       208.80.152.186
lists.wikimedia.org.    3600    IN      A       91.198.174.5

;; Query time: 73 msec
;; SERVER: 208.80.152.130#53(208.80.152.130)
;; WHEN: Wed Aug 12 11:51:03 2009
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 109