use Socket; my $address = shift or die "Usage: $0 address\n"; my $a = gethostbyname $address; $\ = $/; print defined $a ? inet_ntoa($a) : "Can't resolve '$address'"; #### % ./sample_resolver.pl Usage: ./sample_resolver.pl address % ./sample_resolver.pl 127.1 127.0.0.1 % ./sample_resolver.pl 127.54321 127.0.212.49 % ./sample_resolver.pl 3456776543 206.10.57.95 % ./sample_resolver.pl localhost 127.0.0.1 % ./sample_resolver.pl perlmonks.org 209.197.123.153 % ./sample_resolver.pl 040.030.020.010 32.24.16.8 % ./sample_resolver.pl foo.bar Can't resolve 'foo.bar' % ./sample_resolver.pl 255.0.1 255.0.0.1 % ./sample_resolver.pl 256.0.1 Can't resolve '256.0.1'