How do I get the mx records for a domain from *nix command line?

Here are 4 options, in order from least to most verbose: (Thanks to bortzmeyer for suggesting .) The difference is largely a matter of personal preference and what your goal is. I tend to use , but if you want full details about exactly what you're getting back from the server (e.g. because you're troubleshooting DNS), is the way to go. On the third hand, if you're doing this in a script, the output from is going to be easiest to parse.