dig on Windows

[Kevin Darcy]

Jim McAtee wrote:
> I seem to recall that at one time a resolv.conf file was required on 
> Windows to tell dig which nameservers to query.  Does dig now just use the 
> machine's DNS settings when an explicit nameserver isn't queried?
>
> Can dig somehow be configured to append a domain suffix to single-word 
> queries, giving the same behavior as the Windows resolver?
>   
That's not the purpose of dig. dig is for troubleshooting your DNS 
infrastructure, or to verify data in the DNS database (which includes 
delegations, glue, etc.).

Why would you need a separate utility to test the behavior of the 
Windows resolver (which, I'll point out, could involve other naming 
services besides DNS, e.g. WINS, and you really don't expect dig to 
generate WINS lookups do you)? There's plenty of command-line utilities 
that use the Windows resolver (e.g. ping, telnet, etc.) and won't cause 
some app to malfunction in an obscure way if their name lookup fails. 
Use those to test the behavior of the Windows resolver.

                                                                         
                              - Kevin