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Host (Unix)

Unix program for DNS lookups

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
1 min read
Source updated May 11, 2026

host is a simple utility for performing Domain Name System lookups.

01Origin

It was developed by the Internet Systems Consortium (ISC), and is released under the Mozilla Public License 2.0.

02Modes

When applied to a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) the host command will return information associated with that name such as its IP address and mail handling host. It can also be used to list all members of a domain. The host command is also able to perform reverse IP lookups to find the FQDN associated with an IP address.

03Example

$ host example.com example.com has address 93.184.216.34 example.com has IPv6 address 2606:2800:220:1:248:1893:25c8:1946 example.com mail is handled by 0 .
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Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Host (Unix)”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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