dnsquery is unable to look up addresses without help, eg: [tom@skybowl tom]$ dnsquery telstra.net Query failed (h_errno = 2) : Host name lookup failure If I specify a nameserver it's able to use DNS (it's even the same DNS server that's listed in /etc/resolv.conf). [tom@skybowl tom]$ dnsquery -n 203.56.242.1 telstra.net ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 26208 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 6, AUTHORITY: 3, ADDITIONAL: 4 ;; telstra.net, type = ANY, class = IN telstra.net. 48m41s IN NS ns.telstra.net. telstra.net. 48m41s IN NS svc01.apnic.net. telstra.net. 48m41s IN NS ns1.telstra.net. telstra.net. 48m38s IN A 139.130.204.2 telstra.net. 48m38s IN MX 10 postoffice.telstra.net. telstra.net. 48m38s IN MX 5 mailhost.telstra.net. telstra.net. 48m41s IN NS ns.telstra.net. telstra.net. 48m41s IN NS svc01.apnic.net. telstra.net. 48m41s IN NS ns1.telstra.net. ns.telstra.net. 1d13h25m49s IN A 203.50.0.137 svc01.apnic.net. 5h37m12s IN A 202.12.28.131 ns1.telstra.net. 48m11s IN A 139.130.4.5 postoffice.telstra.net. 48m38s IN A 139.130.4.7 A utility such as host still works fine without help: [tom@skybowl tom]$ host telstra.net telstra.net has address 139.130.204.2 telstra.net mail is handled (pri=10) by postoffice.telstra.net telstra.net mail is handled (pri=5) by mailhost.telstra.net As a side effect I also note that 'route' isnt able to resolve hosts: [tom@skybowl tom]$ route Kernel IP routing table Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface 203.56.242.2 * 255.255.255.255 UH 0 0 0 eth0 203.56.242.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0 127.0.0.0 * 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo default stronghold.tm.n 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0
I'm changing the component to bind because that's the package that contains dnsquery. Route resolves hostnames quite well, even in your example. Perhaps your DNS needs some attention ...
erg (don't submit bugs late at night I think is the moral) in regards my route embarrassment. However, dnsquery is definitely buggy. The RedHat 5.2 machines are able to use dnsquery, but not the 6.0 ones.
Confirmed the dnsquery problem in the test lab.
works OK with the latest dnsquery from bind in Raw Hide.