khost(1) Knot DNS khost(1)
NAME
khost - Simple DNS lookup utility
SYNOPSIS
khost [options] name [server]
DESCRIPTION
This utility sends a DNS query for the name to the server and prints a
reply in more user-readable form. For more advanced DNS queries use
kdig instead.
Parameters
name Is a domain name that is to be looked up. If the name is IPv4 or
IPv6 address the PTR query type is used.
server Is a name or an address of the nameserver to send a query to.
The address can be specified using [address]:port notation. If
no server is specified, the servers from /etc/resolv.conf are
used.
If no arguments are provided, khost prints a short help.
Options
-4 Use the IPv4 protocol only.
-6 Use the IPv6 protocol only.
-a Send ANY query with verbose mode.
-d Enable debug messages.
-h, --help
Print the program help.
-r Disable recursion.
-T Use the TCP protocol.
-v Enable verbose output.
-V, --version
Print the program version. The option -VV makes the program
print the compile time configuration summary.
-w Wait forever for the reply.
-c class
Set the query class (e.g. CH, CLASS4). The default class is IN.
-t type
Set the query type (e.g. NS, IXFR=12345, TYPE65535). The default
is to send 3 queries (A, AAAA and MX).
-R retries
The number (>=0) of UDP retries to query a nameserver. The
default is 1.
-W wait
The time to wait for a reply in seconds. This timeout applies to
each query try. The default is 2 seconds.
EXIT VALUES
Exit status of 0 means successful operation. Any other exit status
indicates an error.
EXAMPLES
1. Get the A, AAAA and MX records for example.com:
$ khost example.com
2. Get the reverse record for address 192.0.2.1:
$ khost 192.0.2.1
3. Perform a verbose zone transfer for zone example.com:
$ khost -t AXFR -v example.com
FILES
/etc/resolv.conf
SEE ALSO
kdig(1), knsupdate(1).
AUTHOR
CZ.NIC, z.s.p.o. and contributors <https://www.knot-dns.cz/>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) CZ.NIC, z.s.p.o. and contributors
3.5.0 2025-09-18 khost(1)
knot 3.5.0 - Generated Fri Sep 19 15:33:55 CDT 2025