CentOS 8 dig command not found – How to install dig on CentOS 8

Author: Vivek Gite Last updated: August 11, 2020 0 comments

I deployed minimal version of CentOS 8 in the cloud server. However, I am unable to find the dig command on my newly created CentOS 8 Linux server. It says ‘-bash: dig: command not found‘ I tried yum install dig, but it failed too. How do I install dig command on CentOS 8 Linux using the command line?

Introduction: The dig command is primarily used to query DNS servers. It is a useful tool for network troubleshooting. It is popular due to its flexibility, simple to use, and crystal clear output over host command. This page shows how to install dig command on a CentOS 8 using the ssh or terminal. You must log in as root user to install the following package on Linux.

CentOS 8 dig command not found

You may get the following error when you run dig command:
$ dig www.cyberciti.biz $ dig +short myip.opendns.com @resolver1.opendns.com
Try to locate the dig with type command:
$ type -a dig
Display your PATH settings on Linux with help of echo command:
$ echo "$PATH"

Getting rid of “-bash: dig: command not found” on CentOS 8

BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain) is an implementation of the DNS (Domain Name System) protocols. BIND includes a DNS server (named), which resolves host names to IP addresses; a resolver library and tools for verifying that the DNS server is operating properly. However, bind is not installed by default including the dig command.

You must install bind-utils package on CentOS 8. It contains a collection of utilities (such as dig command and other) for querying DNS name servers to find out information about internet hosts. These tools will provide you with the IP addresses for given host names, as well as other information about registered domains and network addresses.

Searching for packages

Search which yum package provides a dig or host command on CentOS 8:
$ yum whatprovides dig $ yum whatprovides host
Sample outputs:

Last metadata expiration check: 0:56:25 ago on Saturday 28 September 2019 08:07:22 AM UTC.
bind-utils-32:9.11.4-16.P2.el8.x86_64 : Utilities for querying DNS name servers
Repo        : AppStream
Matched from:
Filename    : /usr/bin/dig
 
bind-utils-32:9.11.4-17.P2.el8_0.1.x86_64 : Utilities for querying DNS name servers
Repo        : AppStream
Matched from:
Filename    : /usr/bin/dig
 
bind-utils-32:9.11.4-17.P2.el8_0.x86_64 : Utilities for querying DNS name servers
Repo        : AppStream
Matched from:
Filename    : /usr/bin/dig

Getting information about package

Run the following command before installing the dig and host command on CentOS 8:
# yum info bind-utils

Last metadata expiration check: 0:08:24 ago on Tuesday 11 August 2020 10:33:14 PM IST.
Available Packages
Name         : bind-utils
Epoch        : 32
Version      : 9.11.13
Release      : 5.el8_2
Architecture : x86_64
Size         : 443 k
Source       : bind-9.11.13-5.el8_2.src.rpm
Repository   : AppStream
Summary      : Utilities for querying DNS name servers
URL          : http://www.isc.org/products/BIND/
License      : MPLv2.0
Description  : Bind-utils contains a collection of utilities for querying DNS (Domain
             : Name System) name servers to find out information about Internet
             : hosts. These tools will provide you with the IP addresses for given
             : host names, as well as other information about registered domains and
             : network addresses.
             : 
             : You should install bind-utils if you need to get information from DNS name
             : servers.

How to install dig on CentOS 8

Installing bind-utils is essential if you need to get information from DNS name servers. Type the following yum command/dnf command and press [Enter] key:
$ sudo yum install bind-utils

Installing the dig command on an CentOS 8 server

How do I use dig command on an CentOS 8 based system?

Try the following examples:
dig Your-Hostname dig YourDomainName dig @DNS-server-name Hostname dig @DNS-server-name IPAddress dig @DNS-server-name Hostname|IPAddress type
For example:
$ dig www.cyberciti.biz $ dig @1.1.1.1 yahoo.com $ dig @1.1.1.1 MX nixcraft.com $ dig @1.1.1.1 AAAA google.co.in

dig command installed on a CentOS 8 Linux and displaying dns output of a query

Testing dig command on an CentOS 8 based cloud server

A tip about finding package names

Want to find out which package owned dig command on an CentOS 8? Try:
$ sudo dnf whatprovides '*bin/dig'
OR
$ sudo yum whatprovides '*bin/host'
Sample outputs:

Last metadata expiration check: 1:03:53 ago on Saturday 28 September 2019 08:07:22 AM UTC.
bind-utils-32:9.11.4-17.P2.el8_0.1.x86_64 : Utilities for querying DNS name
                                          : servers
Repo        : @System
Matched from:
Filename    : /usr/bin/host
 
bind-utils-32:9.11.4-16.P2.el8.x86_64 : Utilities for querying DNS name servers
Repo        : AppStream
Matched from:
Filename    : /usr/bin/host
 
bind-utils-32:9.11.4-17.P2.el8_0.1.x86_64 : Utilities for querying DNS name
                                          : servers
Repo        : AppStream
Matched from:
Filename    : /usr/bin/host
 
bind-utils-32:9.11.4-17.P2.el8_0.x86_64 : Utilities for querying DNS name
                                        : servers
Repo        : AppStream
Matched from:
Filename    : /usr/bin/host

Conclusion

This page showed how to search for dig command package name and install the same on a CentOS 8 based system. See bind project for more info and dig command/host command.

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