Use bind utils

In case you need to query or make a DNS diagnostic, the bind utils package can be installed on Haiku.

To install it, type in a Terminal:

pkgman install bind_utils

If you check the bind_utils package content, it's a set of 3 commands :

Let's review each of them.

nslookup

This command is used to check the resolution from a domain name into an IP address.

For instance, if you would like to identify the IP address of the free.fr website, type:

nslookup www.free.Fr

In the opposite situation, you might want to identity the domain name like to a specific IP address.

For that type:

nslookup 212.27.48.10

As you can see, the www.free.fr website has been retrieved:)

Now what about identifying the MX entries of a domain ?

The MX entries stand for Mail Exchange and are used by the email servers.

In a Terminal, type:

nslookup -query=mx free.fr

Two domain names are identified : mx2.free.fr and mx1.free.fr

You can also use the interactive mode of nslookup for the same result:

nslookup
> server 1.1.1.1
> set type=MX
> free.fr
> exit

If you don't need complex DNS query or interactive mode like for nslookup, you can use the "host" command instead.

To retrieve the IP address or the domain name, in a Terminal type:

host free.fr
host 212.27.48.10

Very simple isn't it ?

Now if you would like to identify the MX entries for free.fr, type:

host -t mx free.fr

The results are the same than with nslookup which is consistent.

In case you need to perform complex queries or diagnostics, the dig command is the one to use.

It stands for Domain Information Groper, and can be used to retrieve the entries like A, AAAA, MX, NS, TXT, etc.

You can use it in short format like below:

dig +short free.fr

To get the NS entries (which correspond to Name Server) in short format, type:

dig NS free.fr +short

And if you use the standard format, remove the +short option:

dig NS free.fr

As you can see the information are now more detailed:)

Any other usage you would like to share about the bind utils package?

You can put your comment just below.