In this tutorial, we will show you how to install the Dig on CentOS 8. In the world of network administration and troubleshooting, understanding Domain Name System (DNS) queries is essential. One of the most powerful tools for this purpose is dig, which stands for Domain Information Groper. This command-line utility allows users to query DNS servers and retrieve information about various DNS records. Whether you are a system administrator, a network engineer, or simply someone interested in understanding how DNS works, knowing how to install and use dig on CentOS 8 is invaluable.
This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of the Dig on a CentOS 8.
Prerequisites
- A server running one of the following operating systems: CentOS 8 Linux.
- It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
- Familiarity with the command line is necessary, as all operations will be performed via the terminal.
- SSH access to the server (or just open Terminal if you’re on a desktop).
- A
non-root sudo useror access to theroot user. We recommend acting as anon-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.
Install Dig on CentOS 8
Step 1. Update System Packages.
Before installing any new software, it’s a good practice to update your system packages. Open your terminal and run the following command:
sudo dnf update sudo dnf install epel-release
This command ensures that all existing packages are up to date, which can help prevent compatibility issues during installation.
Step 2. Installing Dig on CentOS 8.
Now we run the following command to install dig on the CentOS system:
sudo dnf install bind-utils
Once the installation is complete, it’s important to verify that dig has been installed correctly. You can do this by checking the version of dig with the following command:
dig -v
Not only dig but bind-utils also install other essential utilities such as nslookup, host, nsupdate, etc.
Step 3. Basic Examples of Dig Command Usage.
Now that dig is installed, you can start using it to perform DNS queries. Here are some basic commands to get you started.
The dig syntax consists of the hostname/IP address, name, and record as follows:
dig [HOSTNAME] [NAME] [RECORD]
- To check the DNS record for a specific domain, run the command:
dig idroot.us
- You can use the
digcommand to find the domain’s MX (Mail Exchange) records:
dig idroot.us MX +short
- Use the utility to display the detailed SOA (Start of Authority) record:
dig idroot.us SOA
Congratulations! You have successfully installed Dig. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing the Dig on your CentOS 8 system. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you to check the official Dig website.
