$ host loopy.loo.found.not; print $? Host loopy.loo.found.not not found: 3(NXDOMAIN) 1
$ host loopy.loo.found.not > /dev/null; print $? 1 $ host loopy.loo.found.not 2>/dev/null; print $? Host loopy.loo.found.not not found: 3(NXDOMAIN) 1 There's a printf at line 429 of /usr/src/usr.sbin/bind/bin/dig/host.c Line 569's printf may also be going to STDOUT. Maybe others.... Successful output to STDOUT: $ host www.example.org; print $? www.example.org has address 93.184.216.119 www.example.org has IPv6 address 2606:2800:220:6d:26bf:1447:1097:aa7 0 $ host www.example.org >/dev/null; print $? 0