dig show only answer

Question

I want dig only to show the answer of my query.

Normally, it prints out alot of additional info like this:

;; <<>> DiG 9.7.3 <<>> google.de
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 55839
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;google.de.                     IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
google.de.              208     IN      A       173.194.69.94

;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 213.133.99.99#53(213.133.99.99)
;; WHEN: Sun Sep 23 10:02:34 2012
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 43

I want this to be reduced to just the answer section.

dig has alot of options, a good one i found was +noall +answer

; <<>> DiG 9.7.3 <<>> google.de +noall +answer
;; global options: +cmd
google.de.              145     IN      A       173.194.69.94

It leaves out most of the stuff, but still shows this options thing.

Any ideas on how to remove it using dig options? I sure could cut it out using other tools, but a option with dig itself would be the cleanest and nicest.

Anything in `${HOME}/.digrc`? – ablackhat Sep 23 '12 at 08:15 — ablackhat, Sep 23 '12 at 08:15

score 88 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 23 '12 at 08:11

88

I am not sure why you are getting comments in the output. That is the correct set of options for the behaviour you want. Here are the same options with the same version of dig:

$ dig -version
DiG 9.7.3
$ dig +noall +answer google.de
google.de.      55  IN  A   173.194.44.216
google.de.      55  IN  A   173.194.44.223
google.de.      55  IN  A   173.194.44.215
$

answered Sep 23 '12 at 08:11

Cakemox

24,141
6
41
67

19

This seems rather interesting. Using `dig +noall +answer google.de` works, `dig google.de +noall +answer` doesn't, even though it is supported according to the manual. – Zulakis Sep 23 '12 at 08:17
10

The order of flags apparently matters. – generalnetworkerror Dec 03 '13 at 19:41

Alphonse Musette · Answer 2 · 2018-01-13T07:58:57.150

50

Use the "+short" option

[root@myhost ~]# dig +short google.com
216.58.194.142

[root@myhost ~]# dig +short -x 216.58.194.142
dfw06s49-in-f14.1e100.net.
dfw06s49-in-f142.1e100.net.

[root@myhost ~]# dig +short google.com soa
ns1.google.com. dns-admin.google.com. 181803313 900 900 1800 60

edited Jan 13 '18 at 07:58

answered Jan 13 '18 at 07:52

Alphonse Musette

527
4
3

Sorry, I had to edit my formatting. Hopefully it is now clear. – Alphonse Musette Jan 13 '18 at 08:00
2

i still do not get it, WHY and HOW is this an answer to the question? – Pierre.Vriens Jan 13 '18 at 08:02
11

I suppose I made an assumption about the intent of the original questioner. For me, the full answer line is less useful. And I can do "dig google.com|grep ^google" if I don't remember the options of dig. But the +short option returns an IP address or host name with no additional text, which I can (for example) use in a script to create a firewall rule. That's usually the part of dig's output that matters to me. WIth the "+noall +noanswer" options I still must apply some string processing if I want to use the result in a script. – Alphonse Musette Jan 15 '18 at 00:27
1

This only shows the final result, not the full answer section. – OrangeDog Sep 27 '21 at 09:16
This will also skip CNAMEs and only show the final A record. It's useful but not quite the same thing – madacoda Mar 03 '22 at 05:58

score 10 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 28 '14 at 20:00

10

Use dig +param domain, not dig domain +param.

% dig +noall +answer -t aaaa d.ns.zerigo.net
d.ns.zerigo.net.        37788   IN      AAAA    2607:fc88:1001:1::4
% dig -t aaaa d.ns.zerigo.net +noall +answer

; <<>> DiG 9.9.2-P2 <<>> -t aaaa d.ns.zerigo.net +noall +answer
;; global options: +cmd
d.ns.zerigo.net.        37797   IN      AAAA    2607:fc88:1001:1::4

+noall +answer switch works differently depending on its position in the command line. This is surely a bug in dig since +short works OK on both sides.

% dig +short -t aaaa d.ns.zerigo.net
2607:fc88:1001:1::4

% dig -t aaaa d.ns.zerigo.net +short
2607:fc88:1001:1::4

answered Jul 28 '14 at 20:00

Nowaker

281
3
10

Did you file it as bug or why did you add this paraphrase of the accepted answer to this question which has been solved 2 years ago? – Zulakis Jul 28 '14 at 21:46
1

The accepted answer says "I am not sure why you are getting comments in the output.", whereas I do know why and this answer is the most accurate one. – Nowaker Jul 28 '14 at 22:41
1

likely because you can query more than one name at a time. compare 'dig -t soa +noall +answer yahoo.com google.com +question' to 'dig -t soa +noall +answer yahoo.com +question google.com' – simpleuser Sep 14 '15 at 00:20
+param option does not even work on latest versions of dig – madacoda Mar 03 '22 at 05:57

ablackhat · Answer 4 · 2012-09-23T08:24:58.570

According to the man page, you might want to try:

dig google.de +noall +answer +nocomments

If that doesn't work I would have to ask what distribution you are using?

Edit: That is the weirdest thing. You have to put the options before the query.

[jglenn@lin02 ~]$ dig +noall +answer google.de
google.de.              35      IN      A       74.125.227.119
google.de.              35      IN      A       74.125.227.120
google.de.              35      IN      A       74.125.227.127
[jglenn@lin02 ~]$ dig +answer google.de +noall

; <<>> DiG 9.8.2rc1-RedHat-9.8.2-0.10.rc1.el6_3.3 <<>> +answer google.de +noall
;; global options: +cmd
[jglenn@lin02 ~]$ dig google.de +noall +answer

; <<>> DiG 9.8.2rc1-RedHat-9.8.2-0.10.rc1.el6_3.3 <<>> google.de +noall +answer
;; global options: +cmd
google.de.              203     IN      A       74.125.227.119
google.de.              203     IN      A       74.125.227.120
google.de.              203     IN      A       74.125.227.127

See below, dig somehow messes it up when it is `dig google.de +noall +answer`, it must be `dig +noall +answer google.de` to have it working. `nocomments` is already included in `noall` — Zulakis, Sep 23 '12 at 08:19

dig show only answer

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