[cs615asa] Difference between nslookup and dig

[Jan Schaumann]

Divyendra Patil <dpatil3 at stevens.edu> wrote:
 
> Can you elaborate on the difference between nslookup and dig

As so often, over time different people invent the same wheel in
slightly different ways.  nslookup(1) was one of the earlier tools used
to resolve names; at some point, the dig(1) command was developed with
the anticipation and goal of replacing nslookup(1).  dig(1) had more
features than nslookup(1) did and provided more details and flexibility,
and the Internet Systems Consortium (ISC), which provides the canonical
implementation of these tools as part of the BIND software, had marked
nslookup(1) as deprecated.

This decision to deprecate nslookup(1) was reversed in 2004; I'm
guessing that perhaps there were too many scripts and tools depending on
nslookup(1) to make deprecation feasible.

dig(1) remains more powerful than nslookup, in that it provides you with
a lot more information and greater flexibility, but you will find broad
usage of both tools everywhere.

-Jan