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

RHEL 8 dig command not found

You may get the following error when you run dig command:
$ dig www.nixcraft.com
$ 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”

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 RHEL 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:
$ yum whatprovides dig
$ yum whatprovides host
Sample outputs:

Last metadata expiration check: 0:07:52 ago on Tuesday 17 September 2019 10:22:07 AM UTC.
bind-utils-32:9.11.4-16.P2.el8.x86_64 : Utilities for querying DNS name servers
Repo        : rhui-rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rhui-rpms
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        : rhui-rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rhui-rpms
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        : rhui-rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rhui-rpms
Matched from:
Filename    : /usr/bin/host

How to install dig on RHEL 8

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

Installing the dig command on an RHEL 8 server

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

The syntax is:
dig Hostname
dig DomaiNameHere
dig @DNS-server-name Hostname
dig @DNS-server-name IPAddress
dig @DNS-server-name Hostname|IPAddress type
For example:
$ dig www.nixcraft.com
$ dig @1.1.1.1 google.com
$ dig @1.1.1.1 MX nixcraft.com
$ dig @1.1.1.1 AAAA yahoo.com

Testing dig command on an RHEL 8 based system

A tip about finding package names

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

Updating Subscription Management repositories.
Updating Subscription Management repositories.
Last metadata expiration check: 0:55:14 ago on Sunday 02 December 2018 01:52:46 AM IST.
bind-utils-32:9.11.4-14.P2.el8.x86_64 : Utilities for querying DNS name servers
Repo        : @System
Matched from:
Other       : *bin/dig
 
bind-utils-32:9.11.4-14.P2.el8.x86_64 : Utilities for querying DNS name servers
Repo        : rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-beta-rpms
Matched from:
Other       : *bin/dig

Conclusion

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