[jlgaddis]

> I always find its output baffling.

I'm gonna fathom a guess that this is likely because you aren't aware that tha output returned by dig is (by default) valid BIND zonefile format/syntax, and/or you aren't very familiar with the BIND zonefile format/syntax itself.

Regardless, though, dig has a number of query options you might like to use that will suppress much of the (redundant and/or unwanted) output that's shown by default, such as "+noadditional", "+noauthority", "+nocmd", "+nocomments", "+noquestion", "+norrcomments", or "+nostats". You can even put all of those those (on a single line) in a "$HOME/.digrc" file and they'll be used automatically everytime you run "dig". See dig(1) for details.

Alternatively, you might find it easier to simply get into the habit of using (only) the "+short" query option everytime you run "dig" (or put that in .digrc). Just at the output of these queries, for example:

  $ dig +short ns example.com

  $ dig +short a google.com

The output quite possibly contains exactly what you want to know and nothing more -- including, especially, all of the extraneous output that often just gets in the way and leaves you constantly baffled!