NAMED(8)	    UNIX Programmer's Manual		 NAMED(8)


NAME
     named - Internet domain name server

SYNOPSIS
     named [ -d debuglevel ] [ -p port# ] [{-b} bootfile ]

DESCRIPTION
     Named is the Internet domain name server.	See RFC883 for
     more information on the Internet name-domain system.
     Without any arguments, named will read the default boot file
     /etc/named.boot, read any initial data and listen for
     queries.

     Options are:

     -d   Print debugging information.	A number after the ``d''
	  determines the level of messages printed.

     -p   Use a different port number.	The default is the stan-
	  dard port number as listed in /etc/services.

     -b   Use an alternate boot file.  This is optional and
	  allows you to specify a file with a leading dash.

     Any additional argument is taken as the name of the boot
     file.  The boot file contains information about where the
     name server is to get its initial data.  If multiple boot
     files are specified, only the last is used.  Lines in the
     boot file cannot be continued on subsequent lines.  The fol-
     lowing is a small example:

       ;
       ;    boot file for name server
       ;
       directory /usr/local/domain

       ; type	  domain		source host/file	  backup file

       cache	  .						  root.cache
       primary	  Berkeley.EDU		berkeley.edu.zone
       primary	  32.128.IN-ADDR.ARPA	ucbhosts.rev
       secondary  CC.Berkeley.EDU	128.32.137.8 128.32.137.3 cc.zone.bak
       secondary  6.32.128.IN-ADDR.ARPA 128.32.137.8 128.32.137.3 cc.rev.bak
       primary	  0.0.127.IN-ADDR.ARPA				  localhost.rev
       forwarders 10.0.0.78 10.2.0.78
       ; slave

     The ``directory'' line causes the server to change its work-
     ing directory to the directory specified.	This can be
     important for the correct processing of $INCLUDE files in
     primary zone files.


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     The ``cache'' line specifies that data in ``root.cache'' is
     to be placed in the backup cache.	Its main use is to
     specify data such as locations of root domain servers.  This
     cache is not used during normal operation, but is used as
     ``hints'' to find the current root servers.  The file
     ``root.cache'' is in the same format as
     ``berkeley.edu.zone''.  There can be more than one ``cache''
     file specified.  The cache files are processed in such a way
     as to preserve the time-to-live's of data dumped out.  Data
     for the root nameservers is kept artificially valid if
     necessary.

     The first ``primary'' line states that the file
     ``berkeley.edu.zone'' contains authoritative data for the
     ``Berkeley.EDU'' zone.  The file ``berkeley.edu.zone'' con-
     tains data in the master file format described in RFC883.
     All domain names are relative to the origin, in this case,
     ``Berkeley.EDU'' (see below for a more detailed descrip-
     tion).  The second ``primary'' line states that the file
     ``ucbhosts.rev'' contains authoritative data for the domain
     ``32.128.IN-ADDR.ARPA,'' which is used to translate
     addresses in network 128.32 to hostnames.	Each master file
     should begin with an SOA record for the zone (see below).

     The first ``secondary'' line specifies that all authorita-
     tive data under ``CC.Berkeley.EDU'' is to be transferred
     from the name server at 128.32.137.8.  If the transfer fails
     it will try 128.32.137.3 and continue trying the addresses,
     up to 10, listed on this line.  The secondary copy is also
     authoritative for the specified domain.  The first non-
     dotted-quad address on this line will be taken as a filename
     in which to backup the transfered zone.  The name server
     will load the zone from this backup file if it exists when
     it boots, providing a complete copy even if the master
     servers are unreachable.  Whenever a new copy of the domain
     is received by automatic zone transfer from one of the mas-
     ter servers, this file will be updated.  The second ``secon-
     dary'' line states that the address-to-hostname mapping for
     the subnet 128.32.136 should be obtained from the same list
     of master servers as the previous zone.

     The ``forwarders'' line specifies the addresses of sitewide
     servers that will accept recursive queries from other
     servers.  If the boot file specifies one or more forwarders,
     then the server will send all queries for data not in the
     cache to the forwarders first.  Each forwarder will be asked
     in turn until an answer is returned or the list is
     exhausted.  If no answer is forthcoming from a forwarder,
     the server will continue as it would have without the for-
     warders line unless it is in ``slave'' mode.  The forwarding
     facility is useful to cause a large sitewide cache to be
     generated on a master, and to reduce traffic over links to


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     outside servers.  It can also be used to allow servers to
     run that do not have access directly to the Internet, but
     wish to act as though they do.

     The ``slave'' line (shown commented out) is used to put the
     server in slave mode.  In this mode, the server will only
     make queries to forwarders.  This option is normally used on
     machine that wish to run a server but for physical or admin-
     istrative reasons cannot be given access to the Internet,
     but have access to a host that does have access.

     The ``sortlist'' line can be used to indicate networks that
     are to be preferred over other, unlisted networks.  Queries
     for host addresses from hosts on the same network as the
     server will receive responses with local network addresses
     listed first, then addresses on the sort list, then other
     addresses.  This line is only acted on at initial startup.
     When reloading the nameserver with a SIGHUP, this line will
     be ignored.

     The master file consists of control information and a list
     of resource records for objects in the zone of the forms:

	  $INCLUDE <filename> <opt_domain>
	  $ORIGIN <domain>
	  <domain> <opt_ttl> <opt_class> <type> <resource_record_data>

     where domain is "." for root, "@" for the current origin, or
     a standard domain name. If domain is a standard domain name
     that does not end with ``.'', the current origin is appended
     to the domain. Domain names ending with ``.'' are unmodi-
     fied.  The opt_domain field is used to define an origin for
     the data in an included file.  It is equivalent to placing a
     $ORIGIN statement before the first line of the included
     file.  The field is optional.  Neither the opt_domain field
     nor $ORIGIN statements in the included file modify the
     current origin for this file.  The opt_ttl field is an
     optional integer number for the time-to-live field.  It
     defaults to zero, meaning the minimum value specified in the
     SOA record for the zone.  The opt_class field is the object
     address type; currently only one type is supported, IN, for
     objects connected to the DARPA Internet. The type field con-
     tains one of the following tokens; the data expected in the
     resource_record_data field is in parentheses.

     A	      a host address (dotted quad)

     NS       an authoritative name server (domain)

     MX       a mail exchanger (domain)

     CNAME    the canonical name for an alias (domain)


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     SOA      marks the start of a zone of authority (domain of
	      originating host, domain address of maintainer, a
	      serial number and the following parameters in
	      seconds: refresh, retry, expire and minimum TTL
	      (see RFC883))

     MB       a mailbox domain name (domain)

     MG       a mail group member (domain)

     MR       a mail rename domain name (domain)

     NULL     a null resource record (no format or data)

     WKS      a well know service description (not implemented
	      yet)

     PTR      a domain name pointer (domain)

     HINFO    host information (cpu_type OS_type)

     MINFO    mailbox or mail list information (request_domain
	      error_domain)

     Resource records normally end at the end of a line, but may
     be continued across lines between opening and closing
     parentheses.  Comments are introduced by semicolons and con-
     tinue to the end of the line.

     Each master zone file should begin with an SOA record for
     the zone.	An example SOA record is as follows:

     @	  IN   SOA  ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU. rwh.ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU. (
			 2.89 ; serial
			 10800	   ; refresh
			 3600 ; retry
			 3600000   ; expire
			 86400 )   ; minimum

     The SOA lists a serial number, which should be changed each
     time the master file is changed.  Secondary servers check
     the serial number at intervals specified by the refresh time
     in seconds; if the serial number changes, a zone transfer
     will be done to load the new data.  If a master server can-
     not be contacted when a refresh is due, the retry time
     specifies the interval at which refreshes should be
     attempted until successful.  If a master server cannot be
     contacted within the interval given by the expire time, all
     data from the zone is discarded by secondary servers.  The
     minimum value is the time-to-live used by records in the
     file with no explicit time-to-live value.


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NOTES
     The boot file directives ``domain'' and ``suffixes'' have
     been obsoleted by a more useful resolver based implementa-
     tion of suffixing for partially qualified domain names.  The
     prior mechanisms could fail under a number of situations,
     especially when then local nameserver did not have complete
     information.

     The following signals have the specified effect when sent to
     the server process using the kill(1) command.

     SIGHUP
	  Causes server to read named.boot and reload database.

     SIGINT
	  Dumps current data base and cache to
	  /usr/tmp/named_dump.db

     SIGIOT
	  Dumps statistics data into /usr/tmp/named.stats if the
	  server is compiled -DSTATS.  Statistics data is
	  appended to the file.

     SIGSYS
	  Dumps the profiling data in /usr/tmp if the server is
	  compiled with profiling (server forks, chdirs and
	  exits).

     SIGTERM
	  Dumps the primary and secondary database files.  Used
	  to save modified data on shutdown if the server is com-
	  piled with dynamic updating enabled.

     SIGUSR1
	  Turns on debugging; each SIGUSR1 increments debug
	  level.  (SIGEMT on older systems without SIGUSR1)

     SIGUSR2
	  Turns off debugging completely.  (SIGFPE on older sys-
	  tems without SIGUSR2)

FILES
     /etc/named.boot	      name server configuration boot file
     /var/run/named.pid       the process id
     /usr/tmp/named.run       debug output
     /usr/tmp/named_dump.db   dump of the name server database
     /usr/tmp/named.stats     nameserver statistics data

SEE ALSO
     kill(1), gethostbyname(3), signal(3), resolver(3),
     resolver(5), hostname(7), RFC882, RFC883, RFC973, RFC974,
     Name Server Operations Guide for BIND


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