Switches - General
- --type TYPE
- This specifies the record type, for example A is the usual record type for a hostname, NS for a nameserver, MX for a mail exchanger, etc.
- --root-server HOST
- By default dnstraverse will ask the local resolver (e.g. whatever your system is configured to use, perhaps that listed in /etc/resolv.conf) for a root server. You can override this by specifying the root server directly. e.g. a.root-servers.net.
- --all-root-servers
- Normally dnstraverse only uses one root server, however you can tell dnstraverse to find out and traverse from all of them. Most of the time DNS issues are not related to root servers, which is why the default is to only use one.
- --root-aaaa
- This isn't implemented yet. The intention is to find an IPv6 root address.
- --follow-aaaa
- This isn't implemented yet. The intention is to only follow IPv6 records for referrals.
- --udp-size SIZE
- By default the extended DNS options system (EDNS0) isn't used and so dnstraverse will receive only UDP packets with a maximum size of 512 bytes. If you specify a size with this option then dnstraverse will issue queries with EDNS0 extension payloads to let the recipients know that they can send back longer UDP packets. Only specify this if your system can cope, otherwise you might not get anything back.
- --retries TIMES
- dnstraverse will retry sending if nothing comes back. By default, it only tries twice. You can increase the number with this option.
- --no-allow-tcp
- This tells dnstraverse not to attempt a TCP connection if the trunctation flag is turned on in a response.
- --always-tcp
- This tells dnstraverse to always use TCP instead of UDP.
- --no-fast
- Turn off fast mode. Fast mode will re-use the results of earlier queries. The main downside of this being on is that it assumes the resolver cache of the earlier branch is not materially different from this branch.
Switches - Display
- --no-show-progress
- Turn off the usual progress information.
- --show-all-stats
- Display statistics as we go.
- --show-resolves
- dnstraverse also traverses resolutions of nameservers given in referrals without an accompanying IP address, however by default we don't print the progress of these, only the results.
- --no-show-serverlist
- Turn off the usual list of servers encountered.
- --no-show-versions
- Turn off the fingerprinting of servers encountered.
- --no-show-results
- Don't display the results.