Debian dnsutils 1:9.11.5.P4+dfsg-5.1 errors on -debug=1 Dnsutils version 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u4 and version 1:9.2.1-2.woody.2 (from 2003) accept both -debug=1 and -debug so I've changed this globally.