About dig output

Hi,
I have some questions about the output reading of "dig" utility.

When I executed "dig @202.42.239.6 mydomain.com. any", the system
gives the output consists of a word "AUTHORITY: 2" but sometime it
stated as "AUTHORITY: 0".

Could somebody explain what is meant by "AUTHORITY: 2" and "AUTHORITY:
0"? What is the implication? Thanks.

; <<>> DiG 9.2.1 <<>> @202.42.239.6 mydomain.com. any
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 35022
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 5, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 2

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;mydomain.com. IN ANY


=================
; <<>> DiG 9.2.1 <<>> @202.42.239.6 mydomain.com. any
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 35022
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 5, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 2

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;mydomain.com. IN ANY

Karan wrote:

> Hi,
> I have some questions about the output reading of "dig" utility.
>
> When I executed "dig @202.42.239.6 mydomain.com. any", the system
> gives the output consists of a word "AUTHORITY: 2" but sometime it
> stated as "AUTHORITY: 0".
>
> Could somebody explain what is meant by "AUTHORITY: 2" and "AUTHORITY:
> 0"? What is the implication? Thanks.
>
> ; <<>> DiG 9.2.1 <<>> @202.42.239.6 mydomain.com. any
> ;; global options: printcmd
> ;; Got answer:
> ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 35022
> ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 5, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 2
>
> ;; QUESTION SECTION:
> ;mydomain.com. IN ANY
>
>
> =================
> ; <<>> DiG 9.2.1 <<>> @202.42.239.6 mydomain.com. any
> ;; global options: printcmd
> ;; Got answer:
> ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 35022
> ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 5, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 2
>
> ;; QUESTION SECTION:
> ;mydomain.com. IN ANY

It's simply the number of entries that appear under the different "sections"
of the dig output. For instance, "AUTHORITY: 4" means that there will be 4
entries under the ";; AUTHORITY SECTION" of the dig output: e.g

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
excite.com. 130950 IN NS dns4.imgfarm.com.
excite.com. 130950 IN NS dns5.imgfarm.com.
excite.com. 130950 IN NS ns1-75.akam.net.
excite.com. 130950 IN NS ns1-95.akam.net.
^ note: 4 entries

The same is true for the "QUERY: x", "ANSWER: x", and "ADDITIONAL: x"
fields. It's a summary of the number of responses from each section of the
dig query.