python: check if a hostname is resolved

Question

How can I have a function in python that returns 1 if the a hostname resolves and 0 if a hostname does not.

I couldn't find anything useful, any thoughts?

Thanks,

Returning 0/1 is very 'unpythonic' instead of True/False. It would be some extremely specific code that could even tell them apart as 1 == True, 0 == False, True + True == 2, and sum(n % 2 == 0 for n in range(1000)) == 500 — Nick T
– Nick T, Commented May 24, 2019 at 18:28

Elhanan Mishraky · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-25 10:43:43Z

90

You can use socket.gethostbyname() for this:

>>> import socket
>>> socket.gethostbyname('google.com')
'74.125.224.198'
>>> socket.gethostbyname('foo')           # no host 'foo' exists on the network
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
socket.gaierror: [Errno 8] nodename nor servname provided, or not known

Your function might look like this:

def hostname_resolves(hostname):
    try:
        socket.gethostbyname(hostname)
        return 1
    except socket.error:
        return 0

Example:

>>> hostname_resolves('google.com')
1
>>> hostname_resolves('foo')
0

edited Feb 25, 2021 at 10:43

Elhanan Mishraky

2,82627 silver badges26 bronze badges

answered Jul 23, 2012 at 18:21

Andrew Clark

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