[#]: subject: "How to use dig" [#]: via: "https://jvns.ca/blog/2021/12/04/how-to-use-dig/" [#]: author: "Julia Evans https://jvns.ca/" [#]: collector: "lujun9972" [#]: translator: " " [#]: reviewer: " " [#]: publisher: " " [#]: url: " " How to use dig ====== Hello! I talked to a couple of friends recently who mentioned they wished they knew how to use `dig` to make DNS queries, so here’s a quick blog post about it. When I first started using `dig` I found it a bit intimidating – there are so many options! I’m going to leave out most of dig’s options in this post and just talk about the ones I actually use. Also I learned recently that you can set up a `.digrc` configuration file to make its output easier to read and it makes it SO MUCH nicer to use. I also drew a [zine page about dig][1] a few years ago, but I wanted to write this post to include a bit more information. ### 2 types of dig arguments: query and formatting There are 2 main types of arguments you can pass to `dig`: 1. arguments that tell dig **what DNS query to make** 2. arguments that tell dig how to **format the response** First, let’s go through the query options. ### the main query options The 3 things you usually want to control about a DNS query are: 1. the **name** (like `jvns.ca`). The default is a query for the empty name (`.`). 2. the **DNS query type** (like `A` or `CNAME`). The default is `A`. 3. the **server** to send the query to (like `8.8.8.8`). The default is what’s in `/etc/resolv.conf`. The format for these is: ``` dig @server name type ``` Here are a couple of examples: * `dig @8.8.8.8 jvns.ca` queries Google’s public DNS server (`8.8.8.8`) for `jvns.ca`. * `dig ns jvns.ca` makes an query with type `NS` for `jvns.ca` ### `-x`: make a reverse DNS query One other query option I use occasionally is `-x`, to make a reverse DNS query. Here’s what the output looks like. ``` $ dig -x 172.217.13.174 174.13.217.172.in-addr.arpa. 72888 IN PTR yul03s04-in-f14.1e100.net. ``` `-x` isn’t magic – `dig -x 172.217.13.174` just makes a `PTR` query for `174.13.217.172.in-addr.arpa.`. Here’s how to make exact the same reverse DNS query without using `-x`. ``` $ dig ptr 174.13.217.172.in-addr.arpa. 174.13.217.172.in-addr.arpa. 72888 IN PTR yul03s04-in-f14.1e100.net. ``` I always use `-x` though because it’s less typing. ### options for formatting the response Now, let’s talk about arguments you can use to format the response. I’ve found that the way `dig` formats DNS responses by default is pretty overwhelming to beginners. Here’s what the output looks like: ``` ; <<>> DiG 9.16.20 <<>> -r jvns.ca ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 28629 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1 ;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION: ; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096 ; COOKIE: d87fc3022c0604d60100000061ab74857110b908b274494d (good) ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;jvns.ca. IN A ;; ANSWER SECTION: jvns.ca. 276 IN A 172.64.80.1 ;; Query time: 9 msec ;; SERVER: 192.168.1.1#53(192.168.1.1) ;; WHEN: Sat Dec 04 09:00:37 EST 2021 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 80 ``` If you’re not used to reading this, it might take you a while to sift through it and find the IP address you’re looking for. And most of the time, you’re only interested in one line of this response (`jvns.ca. 180 IN A 172.64.80.1`). Here are my 2 favourite ways to make dig’s output more manageable. **way 1: +noall +answer** This tells dig to just print what’s in the “Answer” section of the DNS response. Here’s an example of querying for the `NS` records for `google.com`. ``` $ dig +noall +answer ns google.com google.com. 158564 IN NS ns4.google.com. google.com. 158564 IN NS ns1.google.com. google.com. 158564 IN NS ns2.google.com. google.com. 158564 IN NS ns3.google.com. ``` The format here is: ``` NAME TTL TYPE CONTENT google.com 158564 IN NS ns3.google.com. ``` By the way: if you’ve ever wondered what `IN` means, it’s the “query class” and stands for “internet”. It’s basically just a relic from the 80s and 90s when there were other networks competing with the internet like “chaosnet”. **way 2: +short** This is like `dig +noall +answer`, but even shorter – it just shows the content of each record. For example: ``` $ dig +short ns google.com ns2.google.com. ns1.google.com. ns4.google.com. ns3.google.com. ``` ### you can put formatting options in `digrc` If you don’t like dig’s default format (I don’t!), you can tell it to use a different format by default by creating a `.digrc` file in your home directory. I really like the `+noall +answer` format, so I put `+noall +answer` in my `~/.digrc`. Here’s what it looks like for me when I run `dig jvns.ca` using that configuration file. ``` $ dig jvns.ca jvns.ca. 255 IN A 172.64.80.1 ``` So much easier to read! And if I want to go back to the long format with all of the output (which I do sometimes, usually because I want to look at the records in the Authority section of the response), I can get a long answer again by running: ``` $ dig +all jvns.ca ``` ### dig +trace The last dig option that I use is `+trace`. `dig +trace` mimics what a DNS resolver does when it looks up a domain – it starts at the root nameservers, and then queries the next level of nameservers (like `.com`), and so on until it reaches the authoritative nameserver for the domain. So it’ll make about 30 DNS queries. (I checked using tcpdump, it seems to make 2 queries to get A/AAAA records for each of the root nameservers so that’s already 26 queries. I’m not really sure _why_ it does this because it should already have those IPs hardcoded, but it does.) I find this mostly useful for understanding how DNS works though, I don’t think that I’ve used it to solve a problem. ### why dig? Even though there are simpler tools to make DNS queries (like `dog` and `host`), I find myself sticking with dig. What I like about dig is actually the same thing I **don’t** like about dig – it shows a lot of detail! I know that if I run `dig +all`, it’ll show me all of the sections of the DNS response. For example, let’s query one of the root nameservers for `jvns.ca`. The response has 3 sections I might care about – Answer, Authority, and Additional. ``` $ dig @h.root-servers.net. jvns.ca +all ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 18229 ;; flags: qr rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 4, ADDITIONAL: 9 ;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available ;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION: ; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 1232 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;jvns.ca. IN A ;; AUTHORITY SECTION: ca. 172800 IN NS c.ca-servers.ca. ca. 172800 IN NS j.ca-servers.ca. ca. 172800 IN NS x.ca-servers.ca. ca. 172800 IN NS any.ca-servers.ca. ;; ADDITIONAL SECTION: c.ca-servers.ca. 172800 IN A 185.159.196.2 j.ca-servers.ca. 172800 IN A 198.182.167.1 x.ca-servers.ca. 172800 IN A 199.253.250.68 any.ca-servers.ca. 172800 IN A 199.4.144.2 c.ca-servers.ca. 172800 IN AAAA 2620:10a:8053::2 j.ca-servers.ca. 172800 IN AAAA 2001:500:83::1 x.ca-servers.ca. 172800 IN AAAA 2620:10a:80ba::68 any.ca-servers.ca. 172800 IN AAAA 2001:500:a7::2 ;; Query time: 103 msec ;; SERVER: 198.97.190.53#53(198.97.190.53) ;; WHEN: Sat Dec 04 11:23:32 EST 2021 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 289 ``` `dog` also shows the records in the “additional” section , but it’s not super explicit about which is which (I guess the `+` means it’s in the additional section?). It doesn’t seem to show the records in the “Authority” section. ``` $ dog @h.root-servers.net. jvns.ca NS ca. 2d0h00m00s A "c.ca-servers.ca." NS ca. 2d0h00m00s A "j.ca-servers.ca." NS ca. 2d0h00m00s A "x.ca-servers.ca." NS ca. 2d0h00m00s A "any.ca-servers.ca." A c.ca-servers.ca. 2d0h00m00s + 185.159.196.2 A j.ca-servers.ca. 2d0h00m00s + 198.182.167.1 A x.ca-servers.ca. 2d0h00m00s + 199.253.250.68 A any.ca-servers.ca. 2d0h00m00s + 199.4.144.2 AAAA c.ca-servers.ca. 2d0h00m00s + 2620:10a:8053::2 AAAA j.ca-servers.ca. 2d0h00m00s + 2001:500:83::1 AAAA x.ca-servers.ca. 2d0h00m00s + 2620:10a:80ba::68 AAAA any.ca-servers.ca. 2d0h00m00s + 2001:500:a7::2 ``` And `host` seems to only show the records in the “answer” section (in this case no records) ``` $ host jvns.ca h.root-servers.net Using domain server: Name: h.root-servers.net Address: 198.97.190.53#53 Aliases: ``` Anyway, I think that these simpler DNS tools are great (I even made my own [simple web DNS tool][2]) and you should absolutely use them if you find them easier but that’s why I stick with dig. `drill`’s output format seems very similar to `dig`’s though, and maybe `drill` is better! I haven’t really tried it. ### that’s all! I only learned about `.digrc` recently and I love using it so much, so I hope it helps some of you spend less time sorting though dig output! Someone on Twitter pointed out that it would be nice if there were a way to tell dig to show a short version of the response which also included the response’s status (like `NOERROR`, `NXDOMAIN`, `SERVFAIL`, etc), and I agree! I couldn’t find an option in the man page that does that though. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- via: https://jvns.ca/blog/2021/12/04/how-to-use-dig/ 作者：[Julia Evans][a] 选题：[lujun9972][b] 译者：[译者ID](https://github.com/译者ID) 校对：[校对者ID](https://github.com/校对者ID) 本文由 [LCTT](https://github.com/LCTT/TranslateProject) 原创编译，[Linux中国](https://linux.cn/) 荣誉推出 [a]: https://jvns.ca/ [b]: https://github.com/lujun9972 [1]: https://wizardzines.com/comics/dig/ [2]: https://dns-lookup.jvns.ca/