Linux includes a number of standard tools that allow you to work with DNS. Here are the tools you will use:

dig
Forward lookup with dig: dig hostname
Query on specific name server: dig hostname @server
Reverse lookup with dig: dig -x IP

host
Forward lookup with host: host hostname
Reverse lookup with host: host IP

nslookup
Forward lookup using nslookup: nslookup hostname
Lookup on specific name server: nslookup hostname server
Reverse lookup using nslookup: nslookup IP

whois
A command-line utility from the whois package, whois queries the database at whois.networksolutions.com.

Usage:
whois xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
whois domainname