DIG - Manpage

Examples

Use dig to verify DNSSEC record

dig YOUR-DOMAIN-NAME +dnssec +short

Grab the public key used to verify the DNS record

dig DNSKEY YOUR-DOMAIN-NAME +short

Show the DNSSEC chain of trust

dig DS YOUR-DOMAIN-NAME +trace

Manpage

DIG(1)                                                                                                              BIND 9                                                                                                             DIG(1)

NAME
       dig - DNS lookup utility

SYNOPSIS
       dig [@server] [-b address] [-c class] [-f filename] [-k filename] [-m] [-p port#] [-q name] [-t type] [-v] [-x addr] [-y [hmac:]name:key] [ [-4] | [-6] ] [name] [type] [class] [queryopt...]

       dig [-h]

       dig [global-queryopt...] [query...]

DESCRIPTION
       dig  is a flexible tool for interrogating DNS name servers. It performs DNS lookups and displays the answers that are returned from the name server(s) that were queried. Most DNS administrators use dig to troubleshoot DNS problems
       because of its flexibility, ease of use, and clarity of output. Other lookup tools tend to have less functionality than dig.

       Although dig is normally used with command-line arguments, it also has a batch mode of operation for reading lookup requests from a file. A brief summary of its command-line arguments and options is printed when the -h  option  is
       given. The BIND 9 implementation of dig allows multiple lookups to be issued from the command line.

       Unless it is told to query a specific name server, dig tries each of the servers listed in /etc/resolv.conf. If no usable server addresses are found, dig sends the query to the local host.

       When no command-line arguments or options are given, dig performs an NS query for "." (the root).

       It  is possible to set per-user defaults for dig via ${HOME}/.digrc. This file is read and any options in it are applied before the command-line arguments. The -r option disables this feature, for scripts that need predictable be‐
       havior.

       The IN and CH class names overlap with the IN and CH top-level domain names. Either use the -t and -c options to specify the type and class, use the -q to specify the domain name, or use "IN."  and  "CH."  when  looking  up  these
       top-level domains.

SIMPLE USAGE
       A typical invocation of dig looks like:

          dig @server name type

       where:

       server is  the  name  or  IP address of the name server to query. This can be an IPv4 address in dotted-decimal notation or an IPv6 address in colon-delimited notation. When the supplied server argument is a hostname, dig resolves
              that name before querying that name server.

              If no server argument is provided, dig consults /etc/resolv.conf; if an address is found there, it queries the name server at that address. If either of the -4 or -6 options are in use, then only addresses  for  the  corre‐
              sponding transport are tried. If no usable addresses are found, dig sends the query to the local host. The reply from the name server that responds is displayed.

       name   is the name of the resource record that is to be looked up.

       type   indicates what type of query is required - ANY, A, MX, SIG, etc.  type can be any valid query type. If no type argument is supplied, dig performs a lookup for an A record.

OPTIONS
       -4     This option indicates that only IPv4 should be used.

       -6     This option indicates that only IPv6 should be used.

       -b address[#port]
              This option sets the source IP address of the query. The address must be a valid address on one of the host's network interfaces, or "0.0.0.0" or "::". An optional port may be specified by appending #port.

       -c class
              This option sets the query class. The default class is IN; other classes are HS for Hesiod records or CH for Chaosnet records.

       -f file
              This  option  sets  batch  mode,  in which dig reads a list of lookup requests to process from the given file. Each line in the file should be organized in the same way it would be presented as a query to dig using the com‐
              mand-line interface.

       -h     Print a usage summary.

       -k keyfile
              This option tells dig to sign queries using TSIG or SIG(0) using a key read from the given file. Key files can be generated using tsig-keygen. When using TSIG authentication with dig, the name server that is  queried  needs
              to know the key and algorithm that is being used. In BIND, this is done by providing appropriate key and server statements in named.conf for TSIG and by looking up the KEY record in zone data for SIG(0).

       -m     This option enables memory usage debugging.

       -p port
              This option sends the query to a non-standard port on the server, instead of the default port 53. This option is used to test a name server that has been configured to listen for queries on a non-standard port number.

       -q name
              This option specifies the domain name to query. This is useful to distinguish the name from other arguments.

       -r     This option indicates that options from ${HOME}/.digrc should not be read. This is useful for scripts that need predictable behavior.

       -t type
              This  option  indicates the resource record type to query, which can be any valid query type. If it is a resource record type supported in BIND 9, it can be given by the type mnemonic (such as NS or AAAA). The default query
              type is A, unless the -x option is supplied to indicate a reverse lookup. A zone transfer can be requested by specifying a type of AXFR. When an incremental zone transfer (IXFR) is required, set the type to ixfr=N. The  in‐
              cremental zone transfer contains all changes made to the zone since the serial number in the zone's SOA record was N.

              All resource record types can be expressed as TYPEnn, where nn is the number of the type. If the resource record type is not supported in BIND 9, the result is displayed as described in RFC 3597.

       -u     This option indicates that print query times should be provided in microseconds instead of milliseconds.

       -v     This option prints the version number and exits.

       -x addr
              This option sets simplified reverse lookups, for mapping addresses to names. The addr is an IPv4 address in dotted-decimal notation, or a colon-delimited IPv6 address. When the -x option is used, there is no need to provide
              the  name, class, and type arguments.  dig automatically performs a lookup for a name like 94.2.0.192.in-addr.arpa and sets the query type and class to PTR and IN respectively. IPv6 addresses are looked up using nibble for‐
              mat under the IP6.ARPA domain.

       -y [hmac:]keyname:secret
              This option signs queries using TSIG with the given authentication key.  keyname is the name of the key, and secret is the base64-encoded shared secret. hmac is the name of the key algorithm;  valid  choices  are  hmac-md5,
              hmac-sha1, hmac-sha224, hmac-sha256, hmac-sha384, or hmac-sha512. If hmac is not specified, the default is hmac-md5; if MD5 was disabled, the default is hmac-sha256.

       NOTE:
          Only the -k option should be used, rather than the -y option, because with -y the shared secret is supplied as a command-line argument in clear text. This may be visible in the output from ps1 or in a history file maintained by
          the user's shell.

QUERY OPTIONS
       dig  provides  a  number of query options which affect the way in which lookups are made and the results displayed. Some of these set or reset flag bits in the query header, some determine which sections of the answer get printed,
       and others determine the timeout and retry strategies.

       Each query option is identified by a keyword preceded by a plus sign (+). Some keywords set or reset an option; these may be preceded by the string no to negate the meaning of that keyword. Other keywords assign values to options,
       like the timeout interval. They have the form +keyword=value. Keywords may be abbreviated, provided the abbreviation is unambiguous; for example, +cd is equivalent to +cdflag. The query options are:

       +aaflag, +noaaflag
              This option is a synonym for +aaonly, +noaaonly.

       +aaonly, +noaaonly
              This option sets the aa flag in the query.

       +additional, +noadditional
              This option displays [or does not display] the additional section of a reply. The default is to display it.

       +adflag, +noadflag
              This option sets [or does not set] the AD (authentic data) bit in the query. This requests the server to return whether all of the answer and authority sections have been validated as secure, according to the security  pol‐
              icy of the server. AD=1 indicates that all records have been validated as secure and the answer is not from a OPT-OUT range. AD=0 indicates that some part of the answer was insecure or not validated.  This bit is set by de‐
              fault.

       +all, +noall
              This option sets or clears all display flags.

       +answer, +noanswer
              This option displays [or does not display] the answer section of a reply. The default is to display it.

       +authority, +noauthority
              This option displays [or does not display] the authority section of a reply. The default is to display it.

       +badcookie, +nobadcookie
              This option retries the lookup with a new server cookie if a BADCOOKIE response is received.

       +besteffort, +nobesteffort
              This option attempts to display the contents of messages which are malformed. The default is to not display malformed answers.

       +bufsize[=B]
              This option sets the UDP message buffer size advertised using EDNS0 to B bytes.  The maximum and minimum sizes of this buffer are 65535 and 0, respectively.  +bufsize restores the default buffer size.

       +cd, +cdflag, +nocdflag
              This option sets [or does not set] the CD (checking disabled) bit in the query. This requests the server to not perform DNSSEC validation of responses.

       +class, +noclass
              This option displays [or does not display] the CLASS when printing the record.

       +cmd, +nocmd
              This  option toggles the printing of the initial comment in the output, identifying the version of dig and the query options that have been applied. This option always has a global effect; it cannot be set globally and then
              overridden on a per-lookup basis. The default is to print this comment.

       +comments, +nocomments
              This option toggles the display of some comment lines in the output, with information about the packet header and OPT pseudosection, and the names of the response section. The default is to print these comments.

              Other types of comments in the output are not affected by this option, but can be controlled using other command-line switches. These include +cmd, +question, +stats, and +rrcomments.

       +cookie=####, +nocookie
              This option sends [or does not send] a COOKIE EDNS option, with an optional value. Replaying a COOKIE from a previous response allows the server to identify a previous client. The default is +cookie.

              +cookie is also set when +trace is set to better emulate the default queries from a nameserver.

       +crypto, +nocrypto
              This option toggles the display of cryptographic fields in DNSSEC records. The contents of these fields are unnecessary for debugging most DNSSEC validation failures and removing them makes it easier to see the common fail‐
              ures. The default is to display the fields. When omitted, they are replaced by the string [omitted] or, in the DNSKEY case, the key ID is displayed as the replacement, e.g. [ key id = value ].

       +defname, +nodefname
              This option, which is deprecated, is treated as a synonym for +search, +nosearch.

       +dns64prefix, +nodns64prefix
              Lookup IPV4ONLY.ARPA AAAA and print any DNS64 prefixes found.

       +dnssec, +do, +nodnssec, +nodo
              This option requests that DNSSEC records be sent by setting the DNSSEC OK (DO) bit in the OPT record in the additional section of the query.

       +domain=somename
              This option sets the search list to contain the single domain somename, as if specified in a domain directive in /etc/resolv.conf, and enables search list processing as if the +search option were given.

       +edns[=#], +noedns
              This option specifies the EDNS version to query with. Valid values are 0 to 255.  Setting the EDNS version causes an EDNS query to be sent.  +noedns clears the remembered EDNS version. EDNS is set to 0 by default.

       +ednsflags[=#], +noednsflags
              This option sets the must-be-zero EDNS flags bits (Z bits) to the specified value.  Decimal, hex, and octal encodings are accepted. Setting a named flag (e.g., DO) is silently ignored. By default, no Z bits are set.

       +ednsnegotiation, +noednsnegotiation
              This option enables/disables EDNS version negotiation. By default, EDNS version negotiation is enabled.

       +ednsopt[=code[:value]], +noednsopt
              This option specifies the EDNS option with code point code and an optional payload of value as a hexadecimal string. code can be either an EDNS option name  (for  example,  NSID  or  ECS)  or  an  arbitrary  numeric  value.
              +noednsopt clears the EDNS options to be sent.

       +expire, +noexpire
              This option sends an EDNS Expire option.

       +fail, +nofail
              This option indicates that named should try [or not try] the next server if a SERVFAIL is received. The default is to not try the next server, which is the reverse of normal stub resolver behavior.

       +fuzztime[=value], +nofuzztime
              This  option allows the signing time to be specified when generating signed messages.  If a value is specified it is the seconds since 00:00:00 January 1, 1970 UTC ignoring leap seconds.  If no value is specified 1646972129
              (Fri 11 Mar 2022 04:15:29 UTC) is used.  The default is +nofuzztime and the current time is used.

       +header-only, +noheader-only
              This option sends a query with a DNS header without a question section. The default is to add a question section. The query type and query name are ignored when this is set.

       +https[=value], +nohttps
              This option indicates whether to use DNS over HTTPS (DoH) when querying name servers.  When this option is in use, the port number defaults to 443.  The HTTP POST request mode is used when sending the query.

              If value is specified, it will be used as the HTTP endpoint in the query URI; the default is /dns-query. So, for example, dig @example.com +https will use the URI https://example.com/dns-query.

       +https-get[=value], +nohttps-get
              Similar to +https, except that the HTTP GET request mode is used when sending the query.

       +https-post[=value], +nohttps-post
              Same as +https.

       +http-plain[=value], +nohttp-plain
              Similar to +https, except that HTTP queries will be sent over a non-encrypted channel. When this option is in use, the port number defaults to 80 and the HTTP request mode is POST.

       +http-plain-get[=value], +nohttp-plain-get
              Similar to +http-plain, except that the HTTP request mode is GET.

       +http-plain-post[=value], +nohttp-plain-post
              Same as +http-plain.

       +identify, +noidentify
              This option shows [or does not show] the IP address and port number that supplied the answer, when the +short option is enabled. If short form answers are requested, the default is not to show the source  address  and  port
              number of the server that provided the answer.

       +idn, +noidn
              Enable or disable IDN processing. By default IDN is enabled for input query names, and for display when the output is a terminal.

              You can also turn off dig's IDN processing by setting the IDN_DISABLE environment variable.

       +ignore, +noignore
              This option ignores [or does not ignore] truncation in UDP responses instead of retrying with TCP. By default, TCP retries are performed.

       +keepalive, +nokeepalive
              This option sends [or does not send] an EDNS Keepalive option.

       +keepopen, +nokeepopen
              This option keeps [or does not keep] the TCP socket open between queries, and reuses it rather than creating a new TCP socket for each lookup. The default is +nokeepopen.

       +multiline, +nomultiline
              This  option  prints  [or does not print] records, like the SOA records, in a verbose multi-line format with human-readable comments. The default is to print each record on a single line to facilitate machine parsing of the
              dig output.

       +ndots=D
              This option sets the number of dots (D) that must appear in name for it to be considered absolute. The default value is that defined using the ndots statement in /etc/resolv.conf, or 1 if  no  ndots  statement  is  present.
              Names with fewer dots are interpreted as relative names, and are searched for in the domains listed in the search or domain directive in /etc/resolv.conf if +search is set.

       +nsid, +nonsid
              When enabled, this option includes an EDNS name server ID request when sending a query.

       +nssearch, +nonssearch
              When  this  option  is set, dig attempts to find the authoritative name servers for the zone containing the name being looked up, and display the SOA record that each name server has for the zone.  Addresses of servers that
              did not respond are also printed.

       +onesoa, +noonesoa
              When enabled, this option prints only one (starting) SOA record when performing an AXFR. The default is to print both the starting and ending SOA records.

       +opcode=value, +noopcode
              When enabled, this option sets (restores) the DNS message opcode to the specified value. The default value is QUERY (0).

       +padding=value
              This option pads the size of the query packet using the EDNS Padding option to blocks of value bytes. For example, +padding=32 causes a 48-byte query to be padded to 64 bytes. The default block size  is  0,  which  disables
              padding; the maximum is 512. Values are ordinarily expected to be powers of two, such as 128; however, this is not mandatory. Responses to padded queries may also be padded, but only if the query uses TCP or DNS COOKIE.

       +proxy[=src_addr[#src_port]-dst_addr[#dst_port]], +noproxy
              When  this  option is set, dig adds PROXYv2 headers to the queries. When source and destination addresses are specified, the headers contain them and use the PROXY command. It means for the remote peer that the queries were
              sent on behalf of another node and that the PROXYv2 header reflects the original connection endpoints. The default source port is 0 and destination port is 53.

              For encrypted DNS transports, to prevent accidental information leakage, encryption is applied to the PROXYv2 headers: the headers are sent right after the handshake process has been completed.

              For plain DNS transports, no encryption is applied to the PROXYv2 headers.

              If the addressees are omitted, PROXYv2 headers, that use the LOCAL command set, are added instead. For the remote peer, that means that the queries were sent on purpose without being relayed, so the real connection endpoint
              addresses must be used.

       +proxy-plain[=src_addr[#src_port]-dst_addr[#dst_port], +noproxy-plain
              The same as +[no]proxy, but instructs dig to send PROXYv2 headers ahead of any encryption, before any handshake messages are sent. That makes dig behave exactly how it is described in the PROXY protocol  specification,  but
              not all software expects such behaviour.

              Please  consult  the  software documentation to find out if you need this option. (for example, dnsdist expects encrypted PROXYv2 headers sent over TLS when encryption is used, while HAProxy and many other software packages
              expect plain ones).

              For plain DNS transports the option is effectively an alias for the +[no]proxy described above.

       +qid=value
              This option specifies the query ID to use when sending queries.

       +qr, +noqr
              This option toggles the display of the query message as it is sent. By default, the query is not printed.

       +question, +noquestion
              This option toggles the display of the question section of a query when an answer is returned. The default is to print the question section as a comment.

       +raflag, +noraflag
              This option sets [or does not set] the RA (Recursion Available) bit in the query. The default is +noraflag. This bit is ignored by the server for QUERY.

       +rdflag, +nordflag
              This option is a synonym for +recurse, +norecurse.

       +recurse, +norecurse
              This option toggles the setting of the RD (recursion desired) bit in the query.  This bit is set by default, which means dig normally sends recursive queries. Recursion is automatically disabled when the +nssearch or +trace
              query option is used.

       +retry=T
              This option sets the number of times to retry UDP and TCP queries to server to T instead of the default, 2.  Unlike +tries, this does not include the initial query.

       +rrcomments, +norrcomments
              This option toggles the display of per-record comments in the output (for example, human-readable key information about DNSKEY records). The default is not to print record comments unless multiline mode is active.

       +search, +nosearch
              This option uses [or does not use] the search list defined by the searchlist or domain directive in resolv.conf, if any. The search list is not used by default.

              ndots from resolv.conf (default 1), which may be overridden by +ndots, determines whether the name is treated as relative and hence whether a search is eventually performed.

       +short, +noshort
              This option toggles whether a terse answer is provided. The default is to print the answer in a verbose form. This option always has a global effect; it cannot be set globally and then overridden on a per-lookup basis.

       +showbadcookie, +noshowbadcookie
              This option toggles whether to show the message containing the BADCOOKIE rcode before retrying the request or not. The default is to not show the messages.

       +showbadvers, +noshowbadvers
              This option toggles whether to show the message containing the BADVERS rcode before retrying the request or not. The default is to not show the messages.

       +showsearch, +noshowsearch
              This option performs [or does not perform] a search showing intermediate results.

       +split=W
              This option splits long hex- or base64-formatted fields in resource records into chunks of W characters (where W is rounded up to the nearest multiple of 4). +nosplit or +split=0 causes fields not to be split  at  all.  The
              default is 56 characters, or 44 characters when multiline mode is active.

       +stats, +nostats
              This option toggles the printing of statistics: when the query was made, the size of the reply, etc. The default behavior is to print the query statistics as a comment after each lookup.

       +subnet=addr[/prefix-length], +nosubnet
              This option sends [or does not send] an EDNS CLIENT-SUBNET option with the specified IP address or network prefix.

              dig  +subnet=0.0.0.0/0, or simply dig +subnet=0 for short, sends an EDNS CLIENT-SUBNET option with an empty address and a source prefix-length of zero, which signals a resolver that the client's address information must not
              be used when resolving this query.

       +tcflag, +notcflag
              This option sets [or does not set] the TC (TrunCation) bit in the query. The default is +notcflag. This bit is ignored by the server for QUERY.

       +tcp, +notcp
              This option indicates whether to use TCP when querying name servers.  The default behavior is to use UDP unless a type any or ixfr=N query is requested, in which case the default is TCP. AXFR queries always use TCP. To pre‐
              vent retry over TCP when TC=1 is returned from a UDP query, use +ignore.

       +timeout=T
              This option sets the timeout for a query to T seconds. The default timeout is 5 seconds. An attempt to set T to less than 1 is silently set to 1.

       +tls, +notls
              This option indicates whether to use DNS over TLS (DoT) when querying name servers. When this option is in use, the port number defaults to 853.

       +tls-ca[=file-name], +notls-ca
              This option enables remote server TLS certificate validation for DNS transports, relying on TLS. Certificate authorities certificates are loaded from the specified PEM file (file-name). If the file is not specified, the de‐
              fault certificates from the global certificates store are used.

       +tls-certfile=file-name, +tls-keyfile=file-name, +notls-certfile, +notls-keyfile
              These options set the state of certificate-based client authentication for DNS transports, relying on TLS. Both certificate chain file and private key file are expected to be in PEM format.  Both options must  be  specified
              at the same time.

       +tls-hostname=hostname, +notls-hostname
              This option makes dig use the provided hostname during remote server TLS certificate verification. Otherwise, the DNS server name is used. This option has no effect if +tls-ca is not specified.

       +trace, +notrace
              This  option  toggles  tracing  of the delegation path from the root name servers for the name being looked up. Tracing is disabled by default.  When tracing is enabled, dig makes iterative queries to resolve the name being
              looked up. It follows referrals from the root servers, showing the answer from each server that was used to resolve the lookup.

              If @server is also specified, it affects only the initial query for the root zone name servers.

              +dnssec is set when +trace is set, to better emulate the default queries from a name server.

              Note that the delv +ns option can also be used for tracing the resolution of a name from the root (see delv).

       +tries=T
              This option sets the number of times to try UDP and TCP queries to server to T instead of the default, 3. If T is less than or equal to zero, the number of tries is silently rounded up to 1.

       +ttlid, +nottlid
              This option displays [or does not display] the TTL when printing the record.

       +ttlunits, +nottlunits
              This option displays [or does not display] the TTL in friendly human-readable time units of s, m, h, d, and w, representing seconds, minutes, hours, days, and weeks. This implies +ttlid.

       +unknownformat, +nounknownformat
              This option prints all RDATA in unknown RR type presentation format (RFC 3597).  The default is to print RDATA for known types in the type's presentation format.

       +vc, +novc
              This option uses [or does not use] TCP when querying name servers. This alternate syntax to +tcp is provided for backwards compatibility. The vc stands for "virtual circuit."

       +yaml, +noyaml
              When enabled, this option prints the responses (and, if +qr is in use, also the outgoing queries) in a detailed YAML format.

       +zflag, +nozflag
              This option sets [or does not set] the last unassigned DNS header flag in a DNS query.  This flag is off by default.

MULTIPLE QUERIES
       The BIND 9 implementation of dig supports specifying multiple queries on the command line (in addition to supporting the -f batch file option). Each of those queries can be supplied with its own set of flags,  options,  and  query
       options.

       In  this  case, each query argument represents an individual query in the command-line syntax described above. Each consists of any of the standard options and flags, the name to be looked up, an optional query type and class, and
       any query options that should be applied to that query.

       A global set of query options, which should be applied to all queries, can also be supplied. These global query options must precede the first tuple of name, class, type, options, flags, and query options supplied on  the  command
       line. Any global query options (except +cmd and +short options) can be overridden by a query-specific set of query options. For example:

          dig +qr www.isc.org any -x 127.0.0.1 isc.org ns +noqr

       shows  how  dig  can be used from the command line to make three lookups: an ANY query for www.isc.org, a reverse lookup of 127.0.0.1, and a query for the NS records of isc.org. A global query option of +qr is applied, so that dig
       shows the initial query it made for each lookup. The final query has a local query option of +noqr which means that dig does not print the initial query when it looks up the NS records for isc.org.

RETURN CODES
       dig return codes are:

       0      DNS response received, including NXDOMAIN status

       1      Usage error

       8      Couldn't open batch file

       9      No reply from server

       10     Internal error

FILES
       /etc/resolv.conf

       ${HOME}/.digrc

SEE ALSO
       delv(1), host(1), named(8), dnssec-keygen(8), RFC 1035.

BUGS
       There are probably too many query options.

AUTHOR
       Internet Systems Consortium

COPYRIGHT
       2025, Internet Systems Consortium

9.20.9-1-Debian                                                                                                   2025-05-08                                                                                                           DIG(1)