Basic format:
[email protected]:~$ dig droidzone.in ; <<>> DiG 9.8.1-P1 <<>> droidzone.in ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 59555 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 4, ADDITIONAL: 0 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;droidzone.in. IN A ;; ANSWER SECTION: droidzone.in. 27895 IN A 93.182.179.225 ;; AUTHORITY SECTION: droidzone.in. 85494 IN NS ns2.enames.in. droidzone.in. 85494 IN NS ns1.enames.in. droidzone.in. 85494 IN NS ns.enames.in. droidzone.in. 85494 IN NS ns3.enames.in. ;; Query time: 24 msec ;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1) ;; WHEN: Tue Sep 18 22:38:57 2012 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 124
The printcmd options means that the command section (the name given to these first two line) is printed. You can turn it off by using the option +nocmd.
Dig can yield specific records like A or MX:
[email protected]:~$ dig droidzone.in A ; <<>> DiG 9.8.1-P1 <<>> droidzone.in A ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 61546 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 4, ADDITIONAL: 0 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;droidzone.in. IN A ;; ANSWER SECTION: droidzone.in. 27811 IN A 93.182.179.225 ;; AUTHORITY SECTION: droidzone.in. 85410 IN NS ns.enames.in. droidzone.in. 85410 IN NS ns1.enames.in. droidzone.in. 85410 IN NS ns2.enames.in. droidzone.in. 85410 IN NS ns3.enames.in. ;; Query time: 24 msec ;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1) ;; WHEN: Tue Sep 18 22:40:21 2012 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 124 [email protected]:~$ dig droidzone.in MX ; <<>> DiG 9.8.1-P1 <<>> droidzone.in MX ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 52453 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 7, AUTHORITY: 4, ADDITIONAL: 10 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;droidzone.in. IN MX ;; ANSWER SECTION: droidzone.in. 28800 IN MX 30 aspmx4.googlemail.com. droidzone.in. 28800 IN MX 30 aspmx5.googlemail.com. droidzone.in. 28800 IN MX 10 aspmx.l.google.com. droidzone.in. 28800 IN MX 20 alt1.aspmx.l.google.com. droidzone.in. 28800 IN MX 20 alt2.aspmx.l.google.com. droidzone.in. 28800 IN MX 30 aspmx2.googlemail.com. droidzone.in. 28800 IN MX 30 aspmx3.googlemail.com. ;; AUTHORITY SECTION: droidzone.in. 85401 IN NS ns.enames.in. droidzone.in. 85401 IN NS ns3.enames.in. droidzone.in. 85401 IN NS ns1.enames.in. droidzone.in. 85401 IN NS ns2.enames.in. ;; ADDITIONAL SECTION: aspmx.l.google.com. 3 IN A 173.194.79.26 aspmx.l.google.com. 208 IN AAAA 2607:f8b0:400e:c01::1b alt1.aspmx.l.google.com. 234 IN A 74.125.142.27 alt1.aspmx.l.google.com. 97 IN AAAA 2a00:1450:4010:c04::1b alt2.aspmx.l.google.com. 206 IN A 74.125.130.27 alt2.aspmx.l.google.com. 96 IN AAAA 2a00:1450:4010:c04::1a aspmx2.googlemail.com. 212 IN A 74.125.142.27 aspmx2.googlemail.com. 105 IN AAAA 2a00:1450:4010:c04::1a aspmx3.googlemail.com. 60 IN A 74.125.130.27 aspmx3.googlemail.com. 99 IN AAAA 2a00:1450:4010:c04::1a ;; Query time: 353 msec ;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1) ;; WHEN: Tue Sep 18 22:40:30 2012 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 507 [email protected]:~$
In most cases, you dont need all that output.
[email protected]:~$ dig droidzone.in MX +short 20 alt2.aspmx.l.google.com. 30 aspmx2.googlemail.com. 30 aspmx3.googlemail.com. 30 aspmx4.googlemail.com. 30 aspmx5.googlemail.com. 10 aspmx.l.google.com. 20 alt1.aspmx.l.google.com.
This option can be added as default to dig by editing ~/.digrc to have the following:
To use a different name server call dig with the first parameter as@nameserver. For example we can query ns.hosteurope.com directly like this:
dig @ns.hosteurope.com www.droidzone.in
My ~/.digrc contains:
+noall +answer