named(8)named(8)Namenamed - Internet name domain server daemon
Syntax
/usr/etc/named [ -d level# ] [ -p port# ] [ -b bootfile ][ -n ][ -a
type.version ]
Description
The daemon is the Internet domain name server for the BIND/Hesiod ser‐
vice. Without any arguments, reads the default boot file and any ini‐
tial data from the BIND/Hesiod data base files. then listens for
queries.
The boot file specifies where the BIND/Hesiod server is to get its ini‐
tial data. See the Example section.
The master data files consist of entries of the following form:
$include file
$origin domain
domain ttl addr-class entry-type resource-record-data
The entry is useful for separating data into separate files. The entry
is useful for placing more than one domain in a data file. It can also
be used to set the reverse network number origin. The fields are:
file This is the name of the file to be included.
domain This is the domain name. An at sign (@) signifies the
current origin. A name refers to the standard domain
name. If the domain name does not end with a period, the
current origin is appended to the domain. A domain name
ending with a period is the complete BIND domain name
(fully qualified) and thus does not get an extension
appended to it.
ttl This field is an optional integer specifying the time to
live. If no time to live is specified, the default is
obtained from the SOA entry.
addr-class This field is the object class type. There are three
classes:
IN Objects connected to the DARPA Internet
HS Hesiod naming service data
ANY All classes
entry-type The most common entries for this field are listed below.
The field, however, must correspond with the entry type:
A Host address
CNAME Canonical name for an alias
HINFO Host information
MX Mail exchanger
NS Authoritative name server
PTR Domain name pointer
SOA Start of a zone of authority
TXT Hesiod text
WKS Well-known service description
The following signals have the specified effect when sent to the server
process using the command:
SIGXFSZ Causes the server to reload only the databases that have
changed.
SIGHUP Causes the server to read and reload database.
SIGINT Dumps the current data base and cache to
SIGIOT Dumps statistics to
SIGUSR1 Turns on debugging. Each time the SIGUSR1 signal is
issued, the debug level increments by one. Debugging
information is dumped to
SIGUSR2 Turns off debugging.
Options-b bootfile Names of the boot file. If no boot file is specified, the
default is
-d level# Prints debugging information. A number after the -d
option determines the level of messages printed. It is a
good idea to run the daemon with the -d option in the
background.
-p port# Specifies the port number. The default is the standard
port number listed in the file.
-n Runs in network safe mode. All HS class queries sent over
the network are authenticated. Non-authenticated queries
for HS information from hosts other than local host are
not answered. Non-authenticated requests for zone trans‐
fers are ignored.
-a type.version
Specifies the default authentication type. When authenti‐
cated queries are formed, needs to know what type of
authentication to use. The type parameter specifies the
form of authentication. The version parameter specifies
the version of the type to use. The supported forms of
authentication are:
type Kerberos
version One
Examples
The following is an example of a boot file:
;
; boot file for name server
;
; type domain source file or host
;
primary cities.us hosts.db
;
primary 2.10.in-addr.arpa hosts.rev
;
primary 0.0.127.in-addr.arpa named.local
;
secondary cc.cities.us 10.2.0.78 128.32.0.10
;
; load the cache data last
cache . named.ca
Entries beginning with a semicolon are comment lines. In this example,
the first line that is not a comment specifies that this system is the
primary authoritative BIND server for the domain This line also speci‐
fies that the file contains authoritative data for the domain. Domain
names in the file are relative to the origin, such as in the preceding
example.
The second and third non-comment entries (beginning with show the
domain in reverse order. This allows address to name mapping.
The fourth non-comment line specifies that all authoritative data under
is to be transferred from the primary master server at IP address to
the secondary server. If the transfer fails, the secondary server will
then try the master server at address There can be up to 10 IP
addresses listed.
The cache entry specifies that the data in is to be placed in the
cache. This would include well known data such as the locations of
root domain servers.
Files
Name server configuration boot file
Process ID number
Debug output
Dump of the BIND server's cache
See Alsokill(1), signal(3c), resolver(3), hesiod.conf(5), resolv.conf(5)
Guide to the BIND/Hesiod Service
named(8)
