resolvectl(1) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | COMMANDS | OPTIONS | COMPATIBILITY WITH RESOLVCONF(8) | EXAMPLES | SEE ALSO | NOTES | COLOPHON

RESOLVECTL(1)                   resolvectl                  RESOLVECTL(1)

NAME         top

       resolvectl, resolvconf - Resolve domain names, IPV4 and IPv6
       addresses, DNS resource records, and services; introspect and
       reconfigure the DNS resolver

SYNOPSIS         top


       resolvectl [OPTIONS...] {COMMAND} [NAME...]

DESCRIPTION         top

       resolvectl may be used to resolve domain names, IPv4 and IPv6
       addresses, DNS resource records and services with the
       systemd-resolved.service(8) resolver service. By default, the
       specified list of parameters will be resolved as hostnames,
       retrieving their IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. If the parameters
       specified are formatted as IPv4 or IPv6 addresses the reverse
       operation is done, and a hostname is retrieved for the specified
       addresses.

       The program's output contains information about the protocol used
       for the look-up and on which network interface the data was
       discovered. It also contains information on whether the
       information could be authenticated. All data for which local
       DNSSEC validation succeeds is considered authenticated. Moreover,
       all data originating from local, trusted sources is also reported
       authenticated, including resolution of the local host name, the
       "localhost" hostname or all data from /etc/hosts.

COMMANDS         top

       query HOSTNAME|ADDRESS...
           Resolve domain names, as well as IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. When
           used in conjunction with --type= or --class= (see below),
           resolves low-level DNS resource records.

           If a single-label domain name is specified it is searched for
           according to the configured search domains — unless
           --search=no or --type=/--class= are specified, both of which
           turn this logic off.

           If an international domain name is specified, it is
           automatically translated according to IDNA rules when resolved
           via classic DNS — but not for look-ups via MulticastDNS or
           LLMNR. If --type=/--class= is used IDNA translation is turned
           off and domain names are processed as specified.

           If combined with --json= (only supported in combination with
           --type=) will output the resource record data in a JSON
           object.

           Added in version 239.

       service [[NAME] TYPE] DOMAIN
           Resolve RFC 6763 DNS-SD[1] and RFC 2782 SRV[2] services,
           depending on the specified list of parameters. If three
           parameters are passed the first is assumed to be the DNS-SD
           service name, the second the SRV service type, and the third
           the domain to search in. In this case, a full DNS-SD style SRV
           and TXT lookup is executed. If only two parameters are
           specified, the first is assumed to be the SRV service type,
           and the second the domain to look in. In this case, no TXT
           resource record is requested. Finally, if only one parameter
           is specified, it is assumed to be a domain name, that is
           already prefixed with an SRV type, and an SRV lookup is done
           (no TXT).

           Added in version 239.

       openpgp EMAIL@DOMAIN...
           Query PGP keys stored as OPENPGPKEY resource records, see RFC
           7929[3]. Specified e-mail addresses are converted to the
           corresponding DNS domain name, and any OPENPGPKEY keys are
           printed.

           Added in version 239.

       tlsa [FAMILY] DOMAIN[:PORT]...
           Query TLS public keys stored as TLSA resource records, see RFC
           6698[4]. A query will be performed for each of the specified
           names prefixed with the port and family
           ("_port._family.domain"). The port number may be specified
           after a colon (":"), otherwise 443 will be used by default.
           The family may be specified as the first argument, otherwise
           tcp will be used.

           Added in version 239.

       status [LINK...]
           Shows the global and per-link DNS settings currently in
           effect. If no command is specified, this is the implied
           default.

           Added in version 239.

       statistics
           Shows general resolver statistics, including information
           whether DNSSEC is enabled and available, as well as resolution
           and validation statistics.

           Added in version 239.

       reset-statistics
           Resets the statistics counters shown in statistics to zero.
           This operation requires root privileges.

           Added in version 239.

       flush-caches
           Flushes all DNS resource record caches the service maintains
           locally. This is mostly equivalent to sending the SIGUSR2 to
           the systemd-resolved service.

           Added in version 239.

       reset-server-features
           Flushes all feature level information the resolver learnt
           about specific servers, and ensures that the server feature
           probing logic is started from the beginning with the next
           look-up request. This is mostly equivalent to sending the
           SIGRTMIN+1 to the systemd-resolved service.

           Added in version 239.

       dns [LINK [SERVER...]], domain [LINK [DOMAIN...]], default-route
       [LINK [BOOL...]], llmnr [LINK [MODE]], mdns [LINK [MODE]], dnssec
       [LINK [MODE]], dnsovertls [LINK [MODE]], nta [LINK [DOMAIN...]]
           Get/set per-interface DNS configuration. These commands may be
           used to configure various DNS settings for network interfaces.
           These commands may be used to inform systemd-resolved or
           systemd-networkd about per-interface DNS configuration
           determined through external means. The dns command expects
           IPv4 or IPv6 address specifications of DNS servers to use.
           Each address can optionally take a port number separated with
           ":", a network interface name or index separated with "%", and
           a Server Name Indication (SNI) separated with "#". When IPv6
           address is specified with a port number, then the address must
           be in the square brackets. That is, the acceptable full
           formats are "111.222.333.444:9953%ifname#example.com" for IPv4
           and "[1111:2222::3333]:9953%ifname#example.com" for IPv6. The
           domain command expects valid DNS domains, possibly prefixed
           with "~", and configures a per-interface search or route-only
           domain. The default-route command expects a boolean parameter,
           and configures whether the link may be used as default route
           for DNS lookups, i.e. if it is suitable for lookups on domains
           no other link explicitly is configured for. The llmnr, mdns,
           dnssec and dnsovertls commands may be used to configure the
           per-interface LLMNR, MulticastDNS, DNSSEC and DNSOverTLS
           settings. Finally, nta command may be used to configure
           additional per-interface DNSSEC NTA domains.

           Commands dns, domain and nta can take a single empty string
           argument to clear their respective value lists.

           For details about these settings, their possible values and
           their effect, see the corresponding settings in
           systemd.network(5).

           Added in version 239.

       revert LINK
           Revert the per-interface DNS configuration. If the DNS
           configuration is reverted all per-interface DNS setting are
           reset to their defaults, undoing all effects of dns, domain,
           default-route, llmnr, mdns, dnssec, dnsovertls, nta. Note that
           when a network interface disappears all configuration is lost
           automatically, an explicit reverting is not necessary in that
           case.

           Added in version 239.

       monitor
           Show a continuous stream of local client resolution queries
           and their responses. Whenever a local query is completed the
           query's DNS resource lookup key and resource records are
           shown. Note that this displays queries issued locally only,
           and does not immediately relate to DNS requests submitted to
           configured DNS servers or the LLMNR or MulticastDNS zones, as
           lookups may be answered from the local cache, or might result
           in multiple DNS transactions (for example to validate DNSSEC
           information). If CNAME/CNAME redirection chains are followed,
           a separate query will be displayed for each element of the
           chain. Use --json= to enable JSON output.

           Added in version 252.

       show-cache
           Show current cache content, per scope. Use --json= to enable
           JSON output.

           Added in version 254.

       show-server-state
           Show detailed server state information, per DNS Server. Use
           --json= to enable JSON output.

           Added in version 255.

       log-level [LEVEL]
           If no argument is given, print the current log level of the
           manager. If an optional argument LEVEL is provided, then the
           command changes the current log level of the manager to LEVEL
           (accepts the same values as --log-level= described in
           systemd(1)).

           Added in version 244.

OPTIONS         top

       -4, -6
           By default, when resolving a hostname, both IPv4 and IPv6
           addresses are acquired. By specifying -4 only IPv4 addresses
           are requested, by specifying -6 only IPv6 addresses are
           requested.

           Added in version 239.

       -i INTERFACE, --interface=INTERFACE
           Specifies the network interface to execute the query on. This
           may either be specified as numeric interface index or as
           network interface string (e.g.  "en0"). Note that this option
           has no effect if system-wide DNS configuration (as configured
           in /etc/resolv.conf or /etc/systemd/resolved.conf) in place of
           per-link configuration is used.

           Added in version 239.

       -p PROTOCOL, --protocol=PROTOCOL
           Specifies the network protocol for the query. May be one of
           "dns" (i.e. classic unicast DNS), "llmnr" (Link-Local
           Multicast Name Resolution[5]), "llmnr-ipv4", "llmnr-ipv6"
           (LLMNR via the indicated underlying IP protocols), "mdns"
           (Multicast DNS[6]), "mdns-ipv4", "mdns-ipv6" (MDNS via the
           indicated underlying IP protocols). By default, the lookup is
           done via all protocols suitable for the lookup. If used,
           limits the set of protocols that may be used. Use this option
           multiple times to enable resolving via multiple protocols at
           the same time. The setting "llmnr" is identical to specifying
           this switch once with "llmnr-ipv4" and once via "llmnr-ipv6".
           Note that this option does not force the service to resolve
           the operation with the specified protocol, as that might
           require a suitable network interface and configuration. The
           special value "help" may be used to list known values.

           Added in version 239.

       -t TYPE, --type=TYPE, -c CLASS, --class=CLASS
           When used in conjunction with the query command, specifies the
           DNS resource record type (e.g.  A, AAAA, MX, ...) and class
           (e.g.  IN, ANY, ...) to look up. If these options are used a
           DNS resource record set matching the specified class and type
           is requested. The class defaults to IN if only a type is
           specified. The special value "help" may be used to list known
           values.

           Without these options resolvectl query provides high-level
           domain name to address and address to domain name resolution.
           With these options it provides low-level DNS resource record
           resolution. The search domain logic is automatically turned
           off when these options are used, i.e. specified domain names
           need to be fully qualified domain names. Moreover, IDNA
           internal domain name translation is turned off as well, i.e.
           international domain names should be specified in "xn--..."
           notation, unless look-up in MulticastDNS/LLMNR is desired, in
           which case UTF-8 characters should be used.

           Added in version 239.

       --service-address=BOOL
           Takes a boolean parameter. If true (the default), when doing a
           service lookup with --service the hostnames contained in the
           SRV resource records are resolved as well.

           Added in version 239.

       --service-txt=BOOL
           Takes a boolean parameter. If true (the default), when doing a
           DNS-SD service lookup with --service the TXT service metadata
           record is resolved as well.

           Added in version 239.

       --cname=BOOL
           Takes a boolean parameter. If true (the default), DNS CNAME or
           DNAME redirections are followed. Otherwise, if a CNAME or
           DNAME record is encountered while resolving, an error is
           returned.

           Added in version 239.

       --validate=BOOL
           Takes a boolean parameter; used in conjunction with query. If
           true (the default), DNSSEC validation is applied as usual —
           under the condition that it is enabled for the network and for
           systemd-resolved.service as a whole. If false, DNSSEC
           validation is disabled for the specific query, regardless of
           whether it is enabled for the network or in the service. Note
           that setting this option to true does not force DNSSEC
           validation on systems/networks where DNSSEC is turned off.
           This option is only suitable to turn off such validation where
           otherwise enabled, not enable validation where otherwise
           disabled.

           Added in version 248.

       --synthesize=BOOL
           Takes a boolean parameter; used in conjunction with query. If
           true (the default), select domains are resolved on the local
           system, among them "localhost", "_gateway", "_outbound",
           "_localdnsstub" and "_localdnsproxy" or entries from
           /etc/hosts. If false these domains are not resolved locally,
           and either fail (in case of "localhost", "_gateway" or
           "_outbound" and suchlike) or go to the network via regular
           DNS/mDNS/LLMNR lookups (in case of /etc/hosts entries).

           Added in version 248.

       --cache=BOOL
           Takes a boolean parameter; used in conjunction with query. If
           true (the default), lookups use the local DNS resource record
           cache. If false, lookups are routed to the network instead,
           regardless of whether already available in the local cache.

           Added in version 248.

       --zone=BOOL
           Takes a boolean parameter; used in conjunction with query. If
           true (the default), lookups are answered from locally
           registered LLMNR or mDNS resource records, if defined. If
           false, locally registered LLMNR/mDNS records are not
           considered for the lookup request.

           Added in version 248.

       --trust-anchor=BOOL
           Takes a boolean parameter; used in conjunction with query. If
           true (the default), lookups for DS and DNSKEY are answered
           from the local DNSSEC trust anchors if possible. If false, the
           local trust store is not considered for the lookup request.

           Added in version 248.

       --network=BOOL
           Takes a boolean parameter; used in conjunction with query. If
           true (the default), lookups are answered via DNS, LLMNR or
           mDNS network requests if they cannot be synthesized locally,
           or be answered from the local cache, zone or trust anchors
           (see above). If false, the request is not answered from the
           network and will thus fail if none of the indicated sources
           can answer them.

           Added in version 248.

       --search=BOOL
           Takes a boolean parameter. If true (the default), any
           specified single-label hostnames will be searched in the
           domains configured in the search domain list, if it is
           non-empty. Otherwise, the search domain logic is disabled.
           Note that this option has no effect if --type= is used (see
           above), in which case the search domain logic is
           unconditionally turned off.

           Added in version 239.

       --raw[=payload|packet]
           Dump the answer as binary data. If there is no argument or if
           the argument is "payload", the payload of the packet is
           exported. If the argument is "packet", the whole packet is
           dumped in wire format, prefixed by length specified as a
           little-endian 64-bit number. This format allows multiple
           packets to be dumped and unambiguously parsed.

           Added in version 239.

       --legend=BOOL
           Takes a boolean parameter. If true (the default), column
           headers and meta information about the query response are
           shown. Otherwise, this output is suppressed.

           Added in version 239.

       --stale-data=BOOL
           Takes a boolean parameter; used in conjunction with query. If
           true (the default), lookups are answered with stale data
           (expired resource records) if possible. If false, the stale
           data is not considered for the lookup request.

           Added in version 254.

       --relax-single-label=BOOL
           Takes a boolean parameter; used in conjunction with query. If
           true, rules regarding routing of single-label names are
           relaxed. Defaults to false. By default, lookups of
           single-label names are assumed to refer to local hosts to be
           resolved via local resolution such as LLMNR or via search
           domain qualification and are not routed to upstream servers as
           is. If this option is enabled these rules are disabled and the
           queries are routed upstream anyway. Also see the
           ResolveUnicastSingleLabel= option in resolved.conf(5) which
           provides a system-wide option that controls this behaviour.

           Added in version 256.

       --no-ask-password
           Do not query the user for authentication for privileged
           operations.

       --json=MODE
           Shows output formatted as JSON. Expects one of "short" (for
           the shortest possible output without any redundant whitespace
           or line breaks), "pretty" (for a pretty version of the same,
           with indentation and line breaks) or "off" (to turn off JSON
           output, the default).

       -j
           Equivalent to --json=pretty if running on a terminal, and
           --json=short otherwise.

       --no-pager
           Do not pipe output into a pager.

       -h, --help
           Print a short help text and exit.

       --version
           Print a short version string and exit.

COMPATIBILITY WITH RESOLVCONF(8)         top

       resolvectl is a multi-call binary. When invoked as "resolvconf"
       (generally achieved by means of a symbolic link of this name to
       the resolvectl binary) it is run in a limited resolvconf(8)
       compatibility mode. It accepts mostly the same arguments and
       pushes all data into systemd-resolved.service(8), similar to how
       dns and domain commands operate. Note that
       systemd-resolved.service is the only supported backend, which is
       different from other implementations of this command.

       /etc/resolv.conf will only be updated with servers added with this
       command when /etc/resolv.conf is a symlink to
       /run/systemd/resolve/resolv.conf, and not a static file. See the
       discussion of /etc/resolv.conf handling in
       systemd-resolved.service(8).

       Not all operations supported by other implementations are
       supported natively. Specifically:

       -a
           Registers per-interface DNS configuration data with
           systemd-resolved. Expects a network interface name as only
           command line argument. Reads resolv.conf(5)-compatible DNS
           configuration data from its standard input. Relevant fields
           are "nameserver" and "domain"/"search". This command is mostly
           identical to invoking resolvectl with a combination of dns and
           domain commands.

           Added in version 239.

       -d
           Unregisters per-interface DNS configuration data with
           systemd-resolved. This command is mostly identical to invoking
           resolvectl revert.

           Added in version 239.

       -f
           When specified -a and -d will not complain about missing
           network interfaces and will silently execute no operation in
           that case.

           Added in version 239.

       -x
           This switch for "exclusive" operation is supported only
           partially. It is mapped to an additional configured search
           domain of "~."  — i.e. ensures that DNS traffic is preferably
           routed to the DNS servers on this interface, unless there are
           other, more specific domains configured on other interfaces.

           Added in version 239.

       -p
           When specified, the interface will not be used as the default
           route. See also systemd-resolved.service(8) about the default
           route.

           Added in version 257.

       -m
           The switch is not supported and is silently ignored.

           Added in version 239.

       -u, -I, -i, -l, -R, -r, -v, -V, --enable-updates,
       --disable-updates, --are-updates-enabled
           These switches are not supported and the command will fail if
           used.

           Added in version 239.

       See resolvconf(8) for details on those command line options.

EXAMPLES         top

       Example 1. Retrieve the addresses of the "www.0pointer.net" domain
       (A and AAAA resource records)

           $ resolvectl query www.0pointer.net
           www.0pointer.net: 2a01:238:43ed:c300:10c3:bcf3:3266:da74
                             85.214.157.71

           -- Information acquired via protocol DNS in 611.6ms.
           -- Data is authenticated: no

       Example 2. Retrieve the domain of the "85.214.157.71" IP address
       (PTR resource record)

           $ resolvectl query 85.214.157.71
           85.214.157.71: gardel.0pointer.net

           -- Information acquired via protocol DNS in 1.2997s.
           -- Data is authenticated: no

       Example 3. Retrieve the MX record of the "yahoo.com" domain

           $ resolvectl --legend=no -t MX query yahoo.com
           yahoo.com. IN MX    1 mta7.am0.yahoodns.net
           yahoo.com. IN MX    1 mta6.am0.yahoodns.net
           yahoo.com. IN MX    1 mta5.am0.yahoodns.net

       Example 4. Resolve an SRV service

           $ resolvectl service _xmpp-server._tcp gmail.com
           _xmpp-server._tcp/gmail.com: alt1.xmpp-server.l.google.com:5269 [priority=20, weight=0]
                                        173.194.210.125
                                        alt4.xmpp-server.l.google.com:5269 [priority=20, weight=0]
                                        173.194.65.125
                                        ...

       Example 5. Retrieve a PGP key (OPENPGP resource record)

           $ resolvectl openpgp zbyszek@fedoraproject.org
           d08ee310438ca124a6149ea5cc21b6313b390dce485576eff96f8722._openpgpkey.fedoraproject.org. IN OPENPGPKEY
                   mQINBFBHPMsBEACeInGYJCb+7TurKfb6wGyTottCDtiSJB310i37/6ZYoeIay/5soJjlMyf
                   MFQ9T2XNT/0LM6gTa0MpC1st9LnzYTMsT6tzRly1D1UbVI6xw0g0vE5y2Cjk3xUwAynCsSs
                   ...

       Example 6. Retrieve a TLS key (TLSA resource record)

           $ resolvectl tlsa tcp fedoraproject.org:443
           _443._tcp.fedoraproject.org IN TLSA 0 0 1 19400be5b7a31fb733917700789d2f0a2471c0c9d506c0e504c06c16d7cb17c0
                   -- Cert. usage: CA constraint
                   -- Selector: Full Certificate
                   -- Matching type: SHA-256

       "tcp" and ":443" are optional and could be skipped.

SEE ALSO         top

       systemd(1), systemd-resolved.service(8), systemd.dnssd(5),
       systemd-networkd.service(8), resolvconf(8)

NOTES         top

        1. RFC 6763 DNS-SD
           https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6763

        2. RFC 2782 SRV
           https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2782

        3. RFC 7929
           https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7929

        4. RFC 6698
           https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6698

        5. Link-Local Multicast Name Resolution
           https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4795

        6. Multicast DNS
           https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc6762.txt

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the systemd (systemd system and service
       manager) project.  Information about the project can be found at
       ⟨http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd⟩.  If you have a
       bug report for this manual page, see
       ⟨http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/#bugreports⟩.
       This page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨https://github.com/systemd/systemd.git⟩ on 2025-02-02.  (At that
       time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
       repository was 2025-02-02.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
       a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       man-pages@man7.org

systemd 258~devel                                           RESOLVECTL(1)

Pages that refer to this page: org.freedesktop.resolve1(5)systemd.dnssd(5)systemd.link(5)systemd.directives(7)systemd.index(7)systemd-resolved.service(8)