17

I know they're defined in /etc/resolv.conf, but what if it's not there? And more specifically, how do you find the DNS server returned by DHCP?

In GNOME you can use the NetworkManager applet to see the primary DNS for any connection, so how would you do the same from the command line?

11 Answers 11

24

Usually dhclient.leases file is located at /var/lib/dhcp3/dhclient.leases, type the following command:

less /var/lib/dhcp3/dhclient.leases

OR

cat /var/lib/dhcp3/dhclient.leases

OR

You can just use grep command to get DHCP server address, enter:

grep dhcp-server-identifier /var/lib/dhcp3/dhclient.leases

OR

dhclient eth0

4
  • Great, thanks! In case anybody looks for this, the IPCop file is found on /var/ipcop/dhcpc/dhcpcd-*.info
    – Ivan
    Sep 17, 2009 at 18:56
  • This is specific of one DHCP client but there are others (such as pump).
    – bortzmeyer
    Sep 18, 2009 at 7:06
  • 1
    I ran ps aux | grep dhclient and found that my leases file was set to /var/run/dhclient.eth0.leases with the -lf option. May 5, 2015 at 20:22
  • also, less /var/lib/dhcp/dhclient.leases works for Ubuntu 22, while the mentioned in the answer—do not
    – finnan
    Dec 16, 2023 at 22:44
9

I recently had this problem where my dhcpcd was misconfigured as was not setting DNS servers. I found out that I can query which nameservers are available by DHCP with the following command:

sudo dhcpcd -o domain_name_servers -T

The command will output a bunch of network connection information. Look for the line beginning with new_domain_name_servers.

From here I was able to manually set the nameservers.

3
  • 2
    Perfect. This should be the accepted answer, hehe.
    – drumfire
    Jun 3, 2015 at 0:37
  • 1
    This was also the solution that worked for me.
    – Vidia
    Aug 20, 2018 at 10:05
  • why -o switch is necessary if it dumps all the same options with -T alone?
    – user246890
    Sep 17, 2018 at 13:33
7

One more solution to query the DHCP server:

sudo nmap --script broadcast-dhcp-discover

The output tells you the name server offered by the DHCP server:

Starting Nmap 7.60 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2019-12-12 23:50 UTC
Pre-scan script results:
| broadcast-dhcp-discover: 
|   Response 1 of 1: 
|     IP Offered: 144.123.211.44
|     DHCP Message Type: DHCPOFFER
|     Server Identifier: 144.123.99.200
|     IP Address Lease Time: 5m00s
|     Subnet Mask: 255.255.0.0
|     Router: 144.123.99.200
|     Domain Name Server: 144.123.99.200
|_    Domain Name: localdomain
3

I found my DHCP lease info at /var/lib/dhclient/dhclient-eth0.leases in case anyone can't find it at /var/lib/dhcp3/dhclient.leases

2

well, why not simply dig that?

marcus@marcus ~ $ dig google.de

; <<>> DiG 9.4.3-P3 <<>> google.de
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 27579
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 3, AUTHORITY: 6, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;google.de.         IN  A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
google.de.      1785    IN  A   209.85.229.104
google.de.      1785    IN  A   216.239.59.104
google.de.      1785    IN  A   74.125.77.104

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
de.         23431   IN  NS  L.DE.NET.
de.         23431   IN  NS  Z.NIC.de.
de.         23431   IN  NS  F.NIC.de.
de.         23431   IN  NS  C.DE.NET.
de.         23431   IN  NS  S.DE.NET.
de.         23431   IN  NS  A.NIC.de.

;; Query time: 1 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.1.15#53(192.168.1.15)
;; WHEN: Thu Sep 17 19:33:39 2009
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 181

look at the last lines: ;; SERVER: 192.168.1.15#53(192.168.1.15)

5
  • I was thinking the same thing originally, but I don't that that would show ALL of the assigned DNS servers, would it? I think dig only returns the one it used for that particular lookup. On second look, the poster didn't specify so if he's happy with it then your answer is definitely the easiest. :-)
    – KPWINC
    Sep 17, 2009 at 17:40
  • yes you are right output only shows up the dns used by that query... so you can see what is really happening. I found your solution fine to figure out what should happen, thy for that :-) Sep 17, 2009 at 17:45
  • That wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but thanks anyway.
    – Ivan
    Sep 17, 2009 at 18:57
  • 1
    When no DNS server responds, dig doesn't show any useful info, is it possible to make it spit out the DNS servers it tried to ask?
    – Ivan
    Sep 17, 2009 at 18:58
  • So after RingTFM, I see it just uses whatever is on /etc/resolv.conf
    – Ivan
    Sep 17, 2009 at 19:07
1

If there is nothing in /etc/resolv.conf, DNS resolution (that is, resolution using dns as defined in /etc/nsswitch.conf) will not work. This is what dig, host and the libc routines use to do DNS resolution. If there is nothing specified in this file, DNS resolution will not work (though host resolution may work via other means, if another host resolution method is configured, such as NIS (this is unlikely)).

1

this command show the DNS server on your net

dig | grep SERVER: | awk -F# '{ print $1 }' | awk -F: '{ print $2 }'

172.17.0.1

1
  • This does answer the question. In fact it is less reliable than the approach the OP mentions in the question, which is simply to read it from /etc/resolv.conf. After all dig is going to read from /etc/resolv.conf as well and then (try to) communicate with the server before producing any output.
    – kasperd
    Nov 27, 2014 at 19:14
1

If you are using NetworkManager, to get ipv4 DNS servers for YourConnectionName connection, you can use something like

nmcli -g IP4.DNS connection show YourConnectionName

Use nmcli connection show YourConnectionName to get all possible options and values.

0

Read /etc/resolv.conf. That's all.

man resolv.conf is useful, too.

3
  • except he said what to do if it's not there..
    – warren
    Sep 23, 2009 at 6:01
  • 1
    Yes, but I ignored this point, which makes no sense. Since the libc resolver uses resolv.conf, it has to be there.
    – bortzmeyer
    Sep 23, 2009 at 7:08
  • The question said specifically not to use resolve.conf and there is plenty of reasons where resolve.conf is not holding everything (e.g. in my case when a DHCP Server is used)
    – guenhter
    Apr 27, 2023 at 12:18
0

In modern distributions it is looks like

ps aux | grep dhcli | grep -v grep                                                    
root       367  0.0  0.0  16128  3076 ?        S    Apr30   0:00 /sbin/dhclient -d -q -sf /usr/lib/NetworkManager/nm-dhcp-helper -pf /var/run/dhclient-enp3s0.pid -lf /var/lib/NetworkManager/dhclient-324caec3-58f9-3f00-bff4-2f8bd7d2aafa-enp3s0.lease -cf /var/lib/NetworkManager/dhclient-enp3s0.conf enp3s0


tail -16 /var/lib/NetworkManager/dhclient-324caec3-58f9-3f00-bff4-2f8bd7d2aafa-enp3s0.lease
lease {
  interface "enp3s0";
  fixed-address 10.191.104.3;
  option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
  option routers 10.191.104.254;
  option dhcp-lease-time 86400;
  option dhcp-message-type 5;
  option domain-name-servers 91.193.220.3,91.193.220.7;
  option dhcp-server-identifier 91.193.220.3;
  option ntp-servers 91.193.220.6;
  option broadcast-address 10.191.104.255;
  option domain-name "myISP.ru";
  renew 1 2017/05/01 12:56:02;
  rebind 2 2017/05/02 00:27:11;
  expire 2 2017/05/02 03:27:11;
}

where 91.193.220.7 is my ISP's DNS server

nslookup serverfault.com 91.193.220.7
Server:     91.193.220.7
Address:    91.193.220.7#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:   serverfault.com
Address: 151.101.1.69
Name:   serverfault.com
Address: 151.101.65.69
Name:   serverfault.com
Address: 151.101.193.69
Name:   serverfault.com
Address: 151.101.129.69
0

if use systremd-resolve:

$ resolvectl status wlp0s20f3 
//OR
$ systemd-resolve --status wlp0s20f3

outputs:

Link 3 (wlp0s20f3)
      Current Scopes: DNS          
DefaultRoute setting: yes          
       LLMNR setting: yes          
MulticastDNS setting: no           
  DNSOverTLS setting: opportunistic
      DNSSEC setting: no           
    DNSSEC supported: no           
  Current DNS Server: 192.168.27.1 
         DNS Servers: 192.168.27.1 
          DNS Domain: ~.           
                      lan 

//OR

$ resolvectl dns
Global:
Link 5 (tun0): 10.1.2.1
Link 3 (wlp0s20f3): 192.168.1.1

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