Commands

is the basic command to obtain the IP addresses of the argument domain names. It uses whatever resolver is specified in your /etc/resolv.conf file as its default.

dnsname a.b.c.d

does "reverse lookup" of the domain name from the argument IP address.

dnsmx fqdn

finds the Mail Exchanger for the provided domain name. It creates such a record if none is available, simulating the behavior of an MTA.

dnstxt fqdn

prints a TXT record for its argument, or a blank line if none exists.

dnsq t fqdn s

asks a server s for records of type t for the name fqdn.

dnsqr t fqdn

asks (recursively) for records of type t for the name fqdn.

dnsipq udn...

feeds the unqualified names through qualification and returns name[s] and IP address[es].

dnsfilter

reverse-resolves a list of names.

dnstrace t fqdn r...

uses a list r... of root servers and searches for all servers that can affect the resolution of records of type t for the name fqdn.

This can take a long time to run, because you cannot imagine how many servers will be involved. Often the output is piped through dnstracesort.

dnstracesort

sorts the output of dnstrace, using codes for boldface and underline that less can read.

qualification

is guessing a reasonable fully-qualified-domain-name from a shorter version.

tinydns

This is Dan Bernstein's name server, used by very many large sites around the Internet. It is very easy to configure and to administer.

tinydns: describes the server itself.
tinydns-conf acct logacct dir ipAddress: is a little setup program for the tinydns daemon, which creates a directory which can be linked into /service.
tinydns-data: is the tool for setting up the DNS database of a server.
tinydns-edit data data.tmp add type name address: is the tool for editing the DNS database.
tinydns-get t fqdn [ipAddr]: is a tool that accesses a DNS database in the current directory. This should be used to test your database before making it available to users.

dnscache

This is the resolver supplied with djbdns. It does not serve any names, and it resolves any name that can be resolved.

dnscache: describes the resolver.
dnscache-conf acct logacct dir [ipAddr]: is a setup tool for the resolver service.
rbldns: a special listing daemon useful for things such as the Real-Time BlackList.
rbldns-conf acct logAcct dir ipAddr base: configures the rbldns daemon.
rbldns-data: is the data tool for the rbldns daemon.

zone transfer

axfr-get zone fn fn.tmp: is a tool for performing zone transfers from other servers, including Bind.
axfrdns: is a daemon that allows other servers to perform zone transfers from the database of the local server.
axfrdns-conf acct logAcct dir tiny ip: configures the axfrdns daemon to transfer the database of your tiny server. It runs under control of tcpserver.
walldns: is a "reverse DNS wall" daemon.
walldns-conf acct logAcct dir ip: configures the walldns daemon.