Provided by: tcllib_1.15-dfsg-2_all 
NAME
dns - Tcl Domain Name Service Client
SYNOPSIS
package require Tcl 8.2
package require dns ?1.3.3?
::dns::resolve query ?options?
::dns::configure ?options?
::dns::name token
::dns::address token
::dns::cname token
::dns::result token
::dns::status token
::dns::error token
::dns::reset token
::dns::wait token
::dns::cleanup token
::dns::nameservers
_________________________________________________________________
DESCRIPTION
The dns package provides a Tcl only Domain Name Service client. You should refer to (1) and (2) for
information about the DNS protocol or read resolver(3) to find out how the C library resolves domain
names. The intention of this package is to insulate Tcl scripts from problems with using the system
library resolver for slow name servers. It may or may not be of practical use. Internet name resolution
is a complex business and DNS is only one part of the resolver. You may find you are supposed to be using
hosts files, NIS or WINS to name a few other systems. This package is not a substitute for the C library
resolver - it does however implement name resolution over DNS. The package also extends the package uri
to support DNS URIs (4) of the form dns:what.host.com or dns://my.nameserver/what.host.com. The
dns::resolve command can handle DNS URIs or simple domain names as a query.
Note: The package defaults to using DNS over TCP connections. If you wish to use UDP you will need to
have the tcludp package installed and have a version that correctly handles binary data (> 1.0.4). This
is available at http://tcludp.sourceforge.net/. If the udp package is present then UDP will be used by
default.
COMMANDS
::dns::resolve query ?options?
Resolve a domain name using the DNS protocol. query is the domain name to be lookup up. This
should be either a fully qualified domain name or a DNS URI.
-nameserver hostname or -server hostname
Specify an alternative name server for this request.
-protocol tcp|udp
Specify the network protocol to use for this request. Can be one of tcp or udp.
-port portnum
Specify an alternative port.
-search domainlist
-timeout milliseconds
Override the default timeout.
-type TYPE
Specify the type of DNS record you are interested in. Valid values are A, NS, MD, MF,
CNAME, SOA, MB, MG, MR, NULL, WKS, PTR, HINFO, MINFO, MX, TXT, SPF, SRV, AAAA, AXFR, MAILB,
MAILA and *. See RFC1035 for details about the return values. See http://spf.pobox.com/
about SPF. See (3) about AAAA records and RFC2782 for details of SRV records.
-class CLASS
Specify the class of domain name. This is usually IN but may be one of IN for internet
domain names, CS, CH, HS or * for any class.
-recurse boolean
Set to false if you do not want the name server to recursively act upon your request.
Normally set to true.
-command procname
Set a procedure to be called upon request completion. The procedure will be passed the
token as its only argument.
::dns::configure ?options?
The ::dns::configure command is used to setup the dns package. The server to query, the protocol
and domain search path are all set via this command. If no arguments are provided then a list of
all the current settings is returned. If only one argument then it must the the name of an option
and the value for that option is returned.
-nameserver hostname
Set the default name server to be used by all queries. The default is localhost.
-protocol tcp|udp
Set the default network protocol to be used. Default is tcp.
-port portnum
Set the default port to use on the name server. The default is 53.
-search domainlist
Set the domain search list. This is currently not used.
-timeout milliseconds
Set the default timeout value for DNS lookups. Default is 30 seconds.
-loglevel level
Set the log level used for emitting diagnostic messages from this package. The default is
warn. See the log package for details of the available levels.
::dns::name token
Returns a list of all domain names returned as an answer to your query.
::dns::address token
Returns a list of the address records that match your query.
::dns::cname token
Returns a list of canonical names (usually just one) matching your query.
::dns::result token
Returns a list of all the decoded answer records provided for your query. This permits you to
extract the result for more unusual query types.
::dns::status token
Returns the status flag. For a successfully completed query this will be ok. May be error or
timeout or eof. See also ::dns::error
::dns::error token
Returns the error message provided for requests whose status is error. If there is no error
message then an empty string is returned.
::dns::reset token
Reset or cancel a DNS query.
::dns::wait token
Wait for a DNS query to complete and return the status upon completion.
::dns::cleanup token
Remove all state variables associated with the request.
::dns::nameservers
Attempts to return a list of the nameservers currently configured for the users system. On a unix
machine this parses the /etc/resolv.conf file for nameservers (if it exists) and on Windows
systems we examine certain parts of the registry. If no nameserver can be found then the loopback
address (127.0.0.1) is used as a default.
EXAMPLES
% set tok [dns::resolve www.tcl.tk]
::dns::1
% dns::status $tok
ok
% dns::address $tok
199.175.6.239
% dns::name $tok
www.tcl.tk
% dns::cleanup $tok
Using DNS URIs as queries:
% set tok [dns::resolve "dns:tcl.tk;type=MX"]
% set tok [dns::resolve "dns://l.root-servers.net/www.tcl.tk"]
Reverse address lookup:
% set tok [dns::resolve 127.0.0.1]
::dns::1
% dns::name $tok
localhost
% dns::cleanup $tok
REFERENCES
[1] Mockapetris, P., "Domain Names - Concepts and Facilities", RFC 1034, November 1987.
(http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1034.txt)
[2] Mockapetris, P., "Domain Names - Implementation and Specification", RFC 1035, November 1087.
(http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1035.txt)
[3] Thompson, S. and Huitema, C., "DNS Extensions to support IP version 6", RFC 1886, December 1995.
(http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1886.txt)
[4] Josefsson, S., "Domain Name System Uniform Resource Identifiers", Internet-Draft, October 2003,
(http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-josefsson-dns-url-09.txt)
[5] Gulbrandsen, A., Vixie, P. and Esibov, L., "A DNS RR for specifying the location of services (DNS
SRV)", RFC 2782, February 2000, (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2782.txt)
[6] Ohta, M. "Incremental Zone Transfer in DNS", RFC 1995, August 1996,
(http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1995.txt)
AUTHORS
Pat Thoyts
BUGS, IDEAS, FEEDBACK
This document, and the package it describes, will undoubtedly contain bugs and other problems. Please
report such in the category dns of the Tcllib SF Trackers
[http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=12883]. Please also report any ideas for enhancements you may
have for either package and/or documentation.
SEE ALSO
resolver(5)
KEYWORDS
DNS, domain name service, resolver, rfc 1034, rfc 1035, rfc 1886
CATEGORY
Networking
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 2002, Pat Thoyts