MX record

An MX record (mail exchange record) is a record in a DNS system specifying to which server mail should be routed.

For example the MX record of the domain linuxquestions.org is mail.linuxquestions.org: $ dig linuxquestions.org -t MX


 * <<>> DiG 9.3.2 <<>> linuxquestions.org -t MX
 * global options: printcmd
 * Got answer:
 * ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 64759
 * flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1


 * QUESTION SECTION:
 * linuxquestions.org.           IN      MX

linuxquestions.org. 14400  IN      MX      10 mail.linuxquestions.org.
 * ANSWER SECTION:

mail.linuxquestions.org. 14400 IN      A       64.179.4.148
 * ADDITIONAL SECTION:

If you have an eMail for the address someone@linuxquestions.org, linuxquestions.org is the recipient's domain. This domain's MX record tells you which server from this domain is an SMTP server. In our case, it is mail.linuxquestions.org.
 * Query time: 139 msec
 * SERVER: 217.237.150.51#53(217.237.150.51)
 * WHEN: Tue Aug 7 20:52:17 2007
 * MSG SIZE rcvd: 73

= See also =
 * dig
 * mail
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MX_record