HOST(1)                 FreeBSD General Commands Manual                HOST(1)

NAME
     host - DNS lookup utility

SYNOPSIS
     host [-aCdilrsTvw46] [-c class] [-N ndots] [-R number] [-t type]
          [-W wait] name [server]

DESCRIPTION
     host is a simple utility for performing DNS lookups.  It is normally used
     to convert names to IP addresses and vice versa.

     name is the domain name that is to be looked up.  It can also be a
     dotted-decimal IPv4 address or a colon-delimited IPv6 address, in which
     case host will by default perform a reverse lookup for that address.

     When name is not provided, host prints a short summary of it's usage.

     server is an optional argument which is either a domain name or an IP
     address of the name server that host should query instead of the server
     or servers listed in /etc/resolv.conf.  When server is a domain name,
     system resolver is used to obtain it's address.

     Supported options:

     -a      Make a verbose query of type ANY.  Equivalent to -v -t ANY.

     -C      Query for SOA records for zone name from all of it's
             authoritative name servers.  The list of name servers is obtained
             via NS query for name.

     -c class
             Perform DNS query of class class.  Recognized classes are IN
             (Internet), CH (Chaosnet), HS (Hesiod), NONE, ANY and CLASSN
             (where N is a number from 1 to 255).  Default is IN.

     -d      Produce verbose output.  This is a synonym for -v, and is
             provided for backward compatibility.

     -i      Use IP6.INT domain for reverse lookups of IPv6 addresses (as
             defined in RFC1886; note that RFC4159 deprecates IP6.INT).  By
             default IP6.ARPA is used.

     -l      List all NS, PTR, A and AAAA records in zone name by performing a
             zone transfer (AXFR).  You can combine this option with -a to
             print all records, or with -t to only print specific ones.

     -N ndots
             Consider names with at least this many dots as absolute.  That
             is, try to resolve them directly before consulting domain or
             search options from /etc/resolv.conf.

     -r      Perform non-recursive query to the name server by clearing RD
             ("recursion desired") bit of the query.

     -R number
             Retry this many times when a query does not receive an answer in
             time.  The default is 1 retry.  If number is negative or zero, 1
             is used instead.

     -s      Report SERVFAIL responses as they are, do not ignore them.

     -T      Query name server over TCP.  By default UDP is used, except for
             AXFR and IXFR queries, which require TCP.  host will also retry
             UDP queries in TCP mode if the UDP response was truncated (i.e.
             had TC bit set).

     -t type
             Perform DNS query of type type, which can be any standard query
             type name (A, CNAME, MX, TXT, etc), a wildcard query (ANY), or
             TYPEN, where N is a number from 1 to 65535.  For IXFR
             (incremental zone transfer) queries the starting serial number
             can be specified by appending an equal sign followed by the
             number (e.g. -t IXFR=12345678).

             The default is to query for A, AAAA, and MX records, unless -C or
             -l options are given (in which case SOA or AXFR queries are made)
             or name is a valid IP address (in which case reverse lookup using
             PTR query is performed).

     -v      Produce verbose output.

     -w      Wait forever (or for a very long time) for response from the name
             server.

     -W wait
             Wait this many seconds for a reply from name server before timing
             out.  If wait is negative or zero, value of 1 is used.  The
             default is to wait 10 seconds for TCP connections, and 5 seconds
             for UDP (both are subject to retries, see option -R).

     -4      Only use IPv4 transport.

     -6      Only use IPv6 transport.

FILES
     /etc/resolv.conf

SEE ALSO
     drill(1), resolv.conf(5)

COMPATIBILITY
     host aims to be reasonably compatible with `host' utility from BIND9
     distribution, both in supported options and in produced output.  Here is
     a list of known notable differences:

     •   Debugging options (-D and -m) are not supported.

     •   Query class CLASS0 and type TYPE0 are not supported.

     •   Backslashes in domain names are treated especially.

     •   The maximum of 255 retries (option -R) are supported.

     •   Some resource records are formatted differently.  For example, RRSIG
         and DNSKEY records are displayed without spaces in them.

     •   When parsing /etc/resolv.conf commands sortlist and options are
         ignored.  When multiple search and/or domain commands are present,
         host first uses the last domain command, and then all of search
         commands, while `host' from BIND9 uses whatever command was specified
         last.

     •   `Pseudosection TSIG' is missing from verbose packet output.

AUTHORS
     Vitaly Magerya <magv@tx97.net>

FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6         August 27, 2012        FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6