nslookup oddities (Was: SRV record not working)

[Doug Barton]

On 08/20/2018 10:14 AM, Lee wrote:
> On 8/19/18, Mark Andrews <marka at isc.org> wrote:
>> nslookup applies the search list by default and doesn’t stop on a NODATA
>> response.
>>
>> Some versions of nslookup have been modified by OS vendors to use /etc/hosts
>> for address lookups.
>>
>> nslookup doesn’t display the entire response by default.
> 
> I learned something :)  Thank you
> Not that I know the implications of "doesn’t stop on a NODATA
> response" but hopefully that can be remedied.
> 
> wrt the search list, that's why I got in the habit of always typing
> the trailing dot.  I've never seen that fail, but 'set nosearch' is
> supposed to do the same thing.
> 
> 'set debug' and 'set d2' displays lots, but I never checked to see if
> it was the entire response or no
> 
> So... it seems like the bottom line is that dig is better but nslookup
> ain't all that bad

Lee,

Messages like this, and the one you sent me privately, are the reason 
that I usually don't even bother replying to messages on this list. I 
don't say that to denigrate you. I say it in the hopes that someone, 
maybe even you, will learn from your mistake.

Your "bottom line" completely misses basically everything that's been 
said in this thread. No one has made any statement about nslookup being 
"bad," or "worse" than any other tool. I have clearly stated the 
contexts in which the two tools are more or less suited for a given 
situation, and given reasons why. Others have expanded on those reasons.

If you still don't understand why, at least try to understand the when 
and how. Go back and re-read the thread. Look up the terms that you 
don't understand. You can even ask reasonable, specific questions to the 
effect of, "I looked up term XYZ but didn't understand how the zig 
interacts with the zag, can someone explain that to me?"

In other words, do SOMETHING to help yourself. Don't complain that no 
one worked hard enough to make you understand something that you seem to 
be working so hard to misunderstand.

Good luck,

Doug