nslookup Command in Linux: 7 Practical Examples

You can use the ip command to get the IP address of your own Linux system. But what about the IP address of a web service or website?

You can use nslookup to query the DNS and get information like IP address of a website, name server, domain name etc.

Examples of nslookup command in Linux

Let me show you some examples of the nslookup command.

1. Get the IP address of a website

In its simplest form, without any options, nslookup returns domain name and IP address (both IPv4 and IPv6). One of the most popular use of nslookup is to get the IP address of a website in Linux using this method.

nslookup <URL>

Here’s a sample output:

nslookup linuxhandbook.com
Server: 127.0.0.53
Address: 127.0.0.53#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: linuxhandbook.com
Address: 142.93.143.135
Name: linuxhandbook.com
Address: fd00:0:12:13::8e5d:8f87

The 127.0.0.53 address in the above command output is my own system’s DNS set by systemd. In some cases it could be 8.8.8.8 etc.

❓

What is non-authoritative answer?
In the output of nslookup command, you’ll often notice ‘non-authoritative answer’. It means that the answer you got for your DNS query is coming for a non-authoritative source.
It’s because when you use nslookup, the answer is not coming directly from the name server of the server you are querying. Mostly it comes from your internet service provider’s name server.

2. Get the name server (NS records)

You can also display just the name servers associated with a domain with nslookup. These name servers store various DNS related records. Usually, a domain has more than one name server for backup purposes.

To display just name servers, all you need to do is to specify the type of your nslookup query:

nslookup -type=ns <URL>

The sample output for Linux Handbook website is:

nslookup -type=ns linuxhandbook.com
Server: 127.0.0.53
Address: 127.0.0.53#53

Non-authoritative answer:
linuxhandbook.com nameserver = dns2.registrar-servers.com.
linuxhandbook.com nameserver = dns1.registrar-servers.com.

Authoritative answers can be found from:

3. Display MX records

MX records in DNS specify the mail server settings for the domain name. This determines which mail server handles the email for the domain in question.

nslookup -type=mx <URL>

A sample output could be like this:

nslookup -type=mx itsfoss.com
Server: 127.0.0.53
Address: 127.0.0.53#53

Non-authoritative answer:
itsfoss.com mail exchanger = 5 alt2.aspmx.l.google.com.
itsfoss.com mail exchanger = 1 aspmx.l.google.com.
itsfoss.com mail exchanger = 10 alt3.aspmx.l.google.com.
itsfoss.com mail exchanger = 5 alt1.aspmx.l.google.com.
itsfoss.com mail exchanger = 10 alt4.aspmx.l.google.com.

Authoritative answers can be found from:

Do note that sometimes, the mail server settings are not defined and in those cases, the mx query with nslookup could return an output like this:

nslookup -type=mx linuxhandbook.com
Server: 127.0.0.53
Address: 127.0.0.53#53

Non-authoritative answer:
*** Can’t find linuxhandbook.com: No answer

Authoritative answers can be found from:

4. Get SOA record with nslookup

You can query and display the SOA (Start of Authority) record with nslookup by specifying the type of query:

nslookup -type=soa <URL>

A sample output would be like this:

nslookup -type=soa linuxhandbook.com
Server: 127.0.0.53
Address: 127.0.0.53#53

Non-authoritative answer:
linuxhandbook.com
origin = dns1.registrar-servers.com
mail addr = hostmaster.registrar-servers.com
serial = 2019051520
refresh = 43200
retry = 3600
expire = 604800
minimum = 3601

Authoritative answers can be found from:

You can read about the various attributes of the SOA record here.

5. Display all DNS records with nslookup

You can display all the above records (that are set) in one single command using any option.

nslookup -type=any <URL>

And you’ll see a consolidated output of all the above commands:

nslookup -type=any linuxhandbook.com
Server: 127.0.0.53
Address: 127.0.0.53#53

Non-authoritative answer:
linuxhandbook.com
origin = dns1.registrar-servers.com
mail addr = hostmaster.registrar-servers.com
serial = 2019051520
refresh = 43200
retry = 3600
expire = 604800
minimum = 3601
linuxhandbook.com nameserver = dns1.registrar-servers.com.
linuxhandbook.com nameserver = dns2.registrar-servers.com.
Name: linuxhandbook.com
Address: 142.93.143.135

Authoritative answers can be found from:

6. Reverse DNS lookup

So far, you have queried the DNS for a certain domain and got its IP address. You can do the reverse DNS lookup and search for the domain name associated with an IP address.

nslookup <IP_ADDRESS>

For example, if I do a reverse DNS lookup with nslookup on Linux Handbook’s server, this is the answer I get:

nslookup 142.93.143.135
135.143.93.142.in-addr.arpa name = 217283.cloudwaysapps.com.

Authoritative answers can be found from:

You didn’t expect this output, did you? It’s because Linux Handbook was hosted via Cloudways at the time of writing this article. With Cloudways, you can install multiple WordPress websites in a few clicks. When a new WordPress install is created, it is placed at Cloudways’s own URL. The DNS setting is later changed to the intended website’s address.

This is the reason why the output shows the address of Cloudways instead of linuxhandbook.com

7. Query specific DNS server port with nslookup

DNS servers use TCP protocol and thus port 53 is used by default. If a DNS server used some other port, you can specify the port in your query with nslookup:

nslookup -port=<Port_Number> <URL>

I think that’s enough material for you to know how to use nslookup command in Linux. If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment below.