path: root/bin/named/named.8

.\" Copyright (C) 2004-2008 Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. ("ISC")
.\" Copyright (C) 2000, 2001, 2003 Internet Software Consortium.
.\" 
.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
.\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
.\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
.\" 
.\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND ISC DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH
.\" REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY
.\" AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL ISC BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT,
.\" INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM
.\" LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE
.\" OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR
.\" PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
.\"
.\" $Id: named.8,v 1.38 2008/11/07 01:11:19 tbox Exp $
.\"
.hy 0
.ad l
.\"     Title: named
.\"    Author: 
.\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets v1.71.1 <http://docbook.sf.net/>
.\"      Date: June 30, 2000
.\"    Manual: BIND9
.\"    Source: BIND9
.\"
.TH "NAMED" "8" "June 30, 2000" "BIND9" "BIND9"
.\" disable hyphenation
.nh
.\" disable justification (adjust text to left margin only)
.ad l
.SH "NAME"
named \- Internet domain name server
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.HP 6
\fBnamed\fR [\fB\-4\fR] [\fB\-6\fR] [\fB\-c\ \fR\fB\fIconfig\-file\fR\fR] [\fB\-d\ \fR\fB\fIdebug\-level\fR\fR] [\fB\-f\fR] [\fB\-g\fR] [\fB\-m\ \fR\fB\fIflag\fR\fR] [\fB\-n\ \fR\fB\fI#cpus\fR\fR] [\fB\-p\ \fR\fB\fIport\fR\fR] [\fB\-s\fR] [\fB\-S\ \fR\fB\fI#max\-socks\fR\fR] [\fB\-t\ \fR\fB\fIdirectory\fR\fR] [\fB\-u\ \fR\fB\fIuser\fR\fR] [\fB\-v\fR] [\fB\-V\fR] [\fB\-x\ \fR\fB\fIcache\-file\fR\fR]
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.PP
\fBnamed\fR
is a Domain Name System (DNS) server, part of the BIND 9 distribution from ISC. For more information on the DNS, see RFCs 1033, 1034, and 1035.
.PP
When invoked without arguments,
\fBnamed\fR
will read the default configuration file
\fI/etc/named.conf\fR, read any initial data, and listen for queries.
.SH "OPTIONS"
.PP
\-4
.RS 4
Use IPv4 only even if the host machine is capable of IPv6.
\fB\-4\fR
and
\fB\-6\fR
are mutually exclusive.
.RE
.PP
\-6
.RS 4
Use IPv6 only even if the host machine is capable of IPv4.
\fB\-4\fR
and
\fB\-6\fR
are mutually exclusive.
.RE
.PP
\-c \fIconfig\-file\fR
.RS 4
Use
\fIconfig\-file\fR
as the configuration file instead of the default,
\fI/etc/named.conf\fR. To ensure that reloading the configuration file continues to work after the server has changed its working directory due to to a possible
\fBdirectory\fR
option in the configuration file,
\fIconfig\-file\fR
should be an absolute pathname.
.RE
.PP
\-d \fIdebug\-level\fR
.RS 4
Set the daemon's debug level to
\fIdebug\-level\fR. Debugging traces from
\fBnamed\fR
become more verbose as the debug level increases.
.RE
.PP
\-f
.RS 4
Run the server in the foreground (i.e. do not daemonize).
.RE
.PP
\-g
.RS 4
Run the server in the foreground and force all logging to
\fIstderr\fR.
.RE
.PP
\-m \fIflag\fR
.RS 4
Turn on memory usage debugging flags. Possible flags are
\fIusage\fR,
\fItrace\fR,
\fIrecord\fR,
\fIsize\fR, and
\fImctx\fR. These correspond to the ISC_MEM_DEBUGXXXX flags described in
\fI<isc/mem.h>\fR.
.RE
.PP
\-n \fI#cpus\fR
.RS 4
Create
\fI#cpus\fR
worker threads to take advantage of multiple CPUs. If not specified,
\fBnamed\fR
will try to determine the number of CPUs present and create one thread per CPU. If it is unable to determine the number of CPUs, a single worker thread will be created.
.RE
.PP
\-p \fIport\fR
.RS 4
Listen for queries on port
\fIport\fR. If not specified, the default is port 53.
.RE
.PP
\-s
.RS 4
Write memory usage statistics to
\fIstdout\fR
on exit.
.RS
.B "Note:"
This option is mainly of interest to BIND 9 developers and may be removed or changed in a future release.
.RE
.RE
.PP
\-S \fI#max\-socks\fR
.RS 4
Allow
\fBnamed\fR
to use up to
\fI#max\-socks\fR
sockets.
.RS
.B "Warning:"
This option should be unnecessary for the vast majority of users. The use of this option could even be harmful because the specified value may exceed the limitation of the underlying system API. It is therefore set only when the default configuration causes exhaustion of file descriptors and the operational environment is known to support the specified number of sockets. Note also that the actual maximum number is normally a little fewer than the specified value because
\fBnamed\fR
reserves some file descriptors for its internal use.
.RE
.RE
.PP
\-t \fIdirectory\fR
.RS 4
Chroot to
\fIdirectory\fR
after processing the command line arguments, but before reading the configuration file.
.RS
.B "Warning:"
This option should be used in conjunction with the
\fB\-u\fR
option, as chrooting a process running as root doesn't enhance security on most systems; the way
\fBchroot(2)\fR
is defined allows a process with root privileges to escape a chroot jail.
.RE
.RE
.PP
\-u \fIuser\fR
.RS 4
Setuid to
\fIuser\fR
after completing privileged operations, such as creating sockets that listen on privileged ports.
.RS
.B "Note:"
On Linux,
\fBnamed\fR
uses the kernel's capability mechanism to drop all root privileges except the ability to
\fBbind(2)\fR
to a privileged port and set process resource limits. Unfortunately, this means that the
\fB\-u\fR
option only works when
\fBnamed\fR
is run on kernel 2.2.18 or later, or kernel 2.3.99\-pre3 or later, since previous kernels did not allow privileges to be retained after
\fBsetuid(2)\fR.
.RE
.RE
.PP
\-v
.RS 4
Report the version number and exit.
.RE
.PP
\-V
.RS 4
Report the version number and build options, and exit.
.RE
.PP
\-x \fIcache\-file\fR
.RS 4
Load data from
\fIcache\-file\fR
into the cache of the default view.
.RS
.B "Warning:"
This option must not be used. It is only of interest to BIND 9 developers and may be removed or changed in a future release.
.RE
.RE
.SH "SIGNALS"
.PP
In routine operation, signals should not be used to control the nameserver;
\fBrndc\fR
should be used instead.
.PP
SIGHUP
.RS 4
Force a reload of the server.
.RE
.PP
SIGINT, SIGTERM
.RS 4
Shut down the server.
.RE
.PP
The result of sending any other signals to the server is undefined.
.SH "CONFIGURATION"
.PP
The
\fBnamed\fR
configuration file is too complex to describe in detail here. A complete description is provided in the
BIND 9 Administrator Reference Manual.
.SH "FILES"
.PP
\fI/etc/named.conf\fR
.RS 4
The default configuration file.
.RE
.PP
\fI/var/run/named/named.pid\fR
.RS 4
The default process\-id file.
.RE
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.PP
RFC 1033,
RFC 1034,
RFC 1035,
\fBnamed\-checkconf\fR(8),
\fBnamed\-checkzone\fR(8),
\fBrndc\fR(8),
\fBlwresd\fR(8),
\fBnamed.conf\fR(5),
BIND 9 Administrator Reference Manual.
.SH "AUTHOR"
.PP
Internet Systems Consortium
.SH "COPYRIGHT"
Copyright \(co 2004\-2008 Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. ("ISC")
.br
Copyright \(co 2000, 2001, 2003 Internet Software Consortium.
.br