host Command Examples in Linux

host is a simple tool capable of gathering information and testing name resolution. It is installed on most Linux distributions. host is one of the simplest DNS lookup utilities. If the host command is used without any option, it prints the short summary for its argument DNS lookup.

The example of host command are shown in command line here:

# host www.example.com
# host 8.8.8.8

Syntax

The basic syntax is:

# host {domain name}

The command host {domain name} {IP address} will resolve the domain name against the DNS server specified by the IP address.

$ host www.ubuntu.org
www.example.com has address xx.xx.xx.xx
$ host yy.yy.yy.yy
yy.yy.yy.yy.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer
 example.org.

host Command Examples

1. Lookup A, AAAA, and MX records of a domain:

# host domain

2. Lookup a field (CNAME, TXT,…) of a domain:

# host -t field domain

3. Reverse lookup an IP:

# host ip_address

4. Specify an alternate DNS server to query:

# host domain 8.8.8.8

Conclusion

If the host command doesn’t do what you want, try dig, another powerful DNS lookup utility. You might also encounter the nslookup command, mostly obsolete but still found on some Linux and Unix systems.