named(1M) —

NAME

named − Internet domain name server

SYNOPSIS

named [ −d debuglevel ] [ −p port # ] [ bootfile ]

DESCRIPTION

named is the Internet domain name server (see RFC883 for more details). Without any arguments, named will read the default bootfile /etc/named.boot, then read any initial data and listen for queries.

The following options are available:

−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 standard port number as listed in /etc/services.

Any additional argument is taken as the name of the bootfile. The bootfile contains information about where the name server is to get its initial data. The following is a small example:

;
;boot file for name server
;
; typedomainsource file or host
;
domainberkeley.edu
primaryberkeley.edu named.db
secondary cc.berkeley.edu 10.2.0.78 128.32.0.10
cache. named.ca

The first line specifies that “berkeley.edu” is the domain for which the server is authoritative. The second line states that the file named.db contains authoritative data for the domain “berkeley.edu”. The file named.db contains data in the master file format described in RFC883 except that all domain names are relative to the origin; in this case, “berkeley.edu” (see below for a more detailed description). The second line specifies that all authoritative data under “cc.berkeley.edu” is to be transferred from the name server at 10.2.0.78. If the transfer fails, it will try 128.32.0.10 and continue trying the address, up to 10, listed on this line. The secondary copy is also authoritative for the specified domain. The fourth line specifies data in named.ca is to be placed in the cache (i.e., well-known data such as locations of root domain servers). The file named.ca is in the same format as named.db.

The master file consists of entries of the form:

$INCLUDE <filename>
$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 unmodified. The opt_ttl field is an optional integer number for the time-to-live field. It defaults to zero. 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 is one of the following tokens; the data expected in the resource_record_data field is in parentheses.

A a host address (dotted quad)

NSan authoritative name server (domain)

MXa mail exchanger (domain)

CNAME
the canonical name for an alias (domain)

SOAmarks the start of a zone of authority (5 numbers (see RFC883))

MBa mailbox domain name (domain)

MGa mail group member (domain)

MRa mail rename domain name (domain)

NULLa null resource record (no format or data)

WKSa well know service description (not implemented yet)

PTRa domain name pointer (domain)

HINFOhost information (cpu_type OS_type)

MINFOmailbox or mail list information (request_domain error_domain)

Notes

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.

SIGINTDumps current database and cache to /usr/tmp/named_dump.db

SIGUSR1Turns on debugging; each SIGUSR1 increments debug level.

SIGUSR2Turns off debugging completely.

FILES

/etc/named.bootname server configuration boot file
/etc/named.pidthe process id
/usr/tmp/named.rundebug output
/usr/tmp/named_dump.dbdump of the name servers database

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