1.. highlight:: console
2
3khost – Simple DNS lookup utility
4=================================
5
6Synopsis
7--------
8
9:program:`khost` [*options*] *name* [*server*]
10
11Description
12-----------
13
14This utility sends a DNS query for the *name* to the *server* and prints a reply
15in more user-readable form. For more advanced DNS queries use :doc:`kdig<man_kdig>`
16instead.
17
18Parameters
19..........
20
21*name*
22  Is a domain name that is to be looked up. If the *name* is IPv4 or IPv6
23  address the PTR query type is used.
24
25*server*
26  Is a name or an address of the nameserver to send a query to.  The address
27  can be specified using [address]:port notation. If no server is specified,
28  the servers from :file:`/etc/resolv.conf` are used.
29
30If no arguments are provided, :program:`khost` prints a short help.
31
32Options
33.......
34
35**-4**
36  Use the IPv4 protocol only.
37
38**-6**
39  Use the IPv6 protocol only.
40
41**-a**
42  Send ANY query with verbose mode.
43
44**-d**
45  Enable debug messages.
46
47**-h**, **--help**
48  Print the program help.
49
50**-r**
51  Disable recursion.
52
53**-T**
54  Use the TCP protocol.
55
56**-v**
57  Enable verbose output.
58
59**-V**, **--version**
60  Print the program version.
61
62**-w**
63  Wait forever for the reply.
64
65**-c** *class*
66  Set the query class (e.g. CH, CLASS4). The default class is IN.
67
68**-t** *type*
69  Set the query type (e.g. NS, IXFR=12345, TYPE65535). The default is to send 3
70  queries (A, AAAA and MX).
71
72**-R** *retries*
73  The number (>=0) of UDP retries to query a nameserver. The default is 1.
74
75**-W** *wait*
76  The time to wait for a reply in seconds. This timeout applies to each query
77  try. The default is 2 seconds.
78
79Exit values
80-----------
81
82Exit status of 0 means successful operation. Any other exit status indicates
83an error.
84
85Examples
86--------
87
881. Get the A, AAAA and MX records for example.com::
89
90     $ khost example.com
91
922. Get the reverse record for address 192.0.2.1::
93
94     $ khost 192.0.2.1
95
963. Perform a verbose zone transfer for zone example.com::
97
98     $ khost -t AXFR -v example.com
99
100Files
101-----
102
103:file:`/etc/resolv.conf`
104
105See Also
106--------
107
108:manpage:`kdig(1)`, :manpage:`knsupdate(1)`.
109