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dig

Shares rank 50 of 86 privilege escalation tools by recommenders

Command-line DNS lookup tool that people recommend for querying and tracing DNS records; some note nslookup may be the only one installed by default.

Command-line DNS lookup tool that people recommend for querying and tracing DNS records; some note nslookup may be the only one installed by default.

7 people gave an opinion

recommend it
7
criticize it
0
approval share
100%
Each figure is one person. RecommendsCriticizes

Recommended in 6 of 13 months

  1. November 2025: recommended
  2. December 2025: not recommended
  3. January 2026: not recommended
  4. February 2026: not recommended
  5. March 2026: not recommended
  6. April 2026: recommended
  7. May 2026: recommended
  8. June 2026: recommended
  9. July 2026: recommended
  10. August 2026: not recommended
  11. September 2026: not recommended
  12. October 2026: recommended
  13. November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)

Why it doesn’t carry the badge

  • 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
  • Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
  • Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.

The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works

What people say about it

The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.

Why people recommend it

Each mark is one comment

  • Useful DNS lookup tool

    “I recommend dig but you might only have nslookup available out of the box”

    Comment from 22 Oct 2026 in “Quad9 to exit France”

    “`dig` is certainly useful”

    Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “APT Rust requirement raises questions”

Other privilege escalation tools people recommend

The four most recommended other privilege escalation tools, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.

dig compared with 4 alternatives
ProductRecommendCriticizeApprovalMonthsOwnedBadge
fzf78594%12—Approved
jq753369%12—Approved
grep651977%12—Approved
Atuin632472%112 yrs4 ownersApproved
digThis page70100%6——
See all 86 privilege escalation tools, ranked

What people said

All 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.

“I recommend dig but you might only have nslookup available out of the box”

RecommendsComment from 22 Oct 2026 in “Quad9 to exit France”

“It's more serious, and has Orson Scott Card and Stephen Spielberg credited as writers”

RecommendsComment from 30 Jul 2026 in “Ron Gilbert started production on Thimbleweed Park 2”

“Or it seems like `dig +trace` would probably work, too.”

RecommendsComment from 16 Jun 2026 in “The ghost domain problem in DNS, and what we're doing about it”

“We got Comanche, Alone in the Dark, Dune, Dig, etc.”

MixedComment from 14 May 2026 in “Linux gaming is faster because Windows APIs are becoming Linux kernel features”

“I enjoyed the 2021 Netflix movie The Dig”

RecommendsComment from 20 Apr 2026 in “Monumental ship burial beneath ancient Norwegian mound predates the Viking Age”

“`dig` is certainly useful”

RecommendsComment from 27 Nov 2025 in “APT Rust requirement raises questions”

“they'll do a reasonable job!”

RecommendsComment from 6 Nov 2025 in “You should write an agent”

Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.