HELP ASAP with nslookup!!!

dc2_jspec

I am wanting to use PHP to do something like the following:

perform an nslookup, which I accomplish with:

 $nslookup = `nslookup`;

then the prompt would give me a ">" which is asking for parameters. I then want to type in "server so-and-so", then when the server gives the next ">", I want to type in "set q=txt" and so on and so forth. How would I go about having php type these values in? It is not exactly like 3 different commands, it is more like one command with parameters added after the first ENTER. Any help would be great. Please let me know if you need some clarification, I know it is a bit confusing. Below is kinda what the server would look like if I was typing it in on Telnet, but I want this to be performed within PHP.

[whatever whatever]$ nslookup
Default Server: ns1.happy.com
Address: 12.158.184.1

server hairy.frank.net
Default Server: hairy.frank.net
Address: 209.30.182.2

set type=txt
whateveryouwant.com
Server: hairy.frank.net
Address: 209.30.182.2

theslinky

you can do it two ways:

1) open a PIPE using fopen("| nslookup", "w") -- not sure of the exact syntax, look it up.

and use fread / fwrite

2) do it the EASIER way:

$nslookup = nslookup -query=txt yahoo.com;

nslookup supports the -query=XXX option where XXX is the query type: txt, ns, a, in, etc.

BTW: i'm not sure if all DNS servers allow the TXT query. mine certainly doesn't :-).

-sridhar

dc2_jspec

BEAUTIFUL!!! Thanks for the help. I used the second choice, worked great! thanx again.