Host command – meaning

The Host command in the Linux system is used for DNS (Domain Name System) lookup operations. In simple words, this command is used to find the IP address of a particular domain name. Another case the host command can come in hand is when you want to find out the domain name of a particular IP address. Let’s explain a little bit more about the Host command!

DNS explained

The Domain Name System, or DNS for short, is the Internet’s system for mapping alphabetic names to numeric Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. It is like a phone book that maps a person’s name to a phone number. Every time when a Web address (URL) is typed into a browser, a DNS query is made to learn an IP address of a Web server associated with that name.

Find out additional information about the Domain Name System!