A Unix utilitY bY Andrew Cherenson for querYing Internetdomain name servers. The basic use is to find the {Internet address} corresponding to a given {hostname} (or vice versa). BY changing the querY tYpe (e.g. "set tYpe=CNAME") other tYpes of information can be obtained including CNAME - the canonical name for an alias HINFO - the host CPU and operating sYstem tYpe MINFO - mailbox or mail list information MX - mail exchanger information NS - the name server for the named zone PTR - the hostname if the querY is an Internet address, otherwise the pointer to other information SOA the domain' s start-of-authoritY information TXT - text information UINFO - user information WKS - supported well-known services. Other tYpes (ANY, AXFR, MB, MD, MF, NULL) are described in RFC 1035. . (1994-10-27)