host
host is a Linux command in the Network category, rated intermediate difficulty. Simple DNS lookup utility. The syntax is host [options] name. It returns dNS record information. A practical example: host google.com host -t MX gmail.com # MX record lookup A close relative is ping, which tests network connectivity to a host by sending ICMP echo requests. A close relative is curl, which transfers data to/from a server using various protocols (HTTP, FTP, etc.). A close relative is wget, which downloads files from the internet. Supports recursive downloads. More about this category: Linux networking commands — ping, curl, wget, netstat, ss, ifconfig, and more. Configure and troubleshoot network connections. Related Network commands: ping, curl, wget, ifconfig, ip, ss, netstat, nslookup. This page is part of the free Linux Reference documentation covering 304+ commands, each with syntax, options, practical examples, and a difficulty rating.