NAME

named − Internet domain name server

SYNOPSIS

/usr/etc/in.named [ −d level ] [ −p port ] [ {−b} bootfile ]

DESCRIPTION

named is the Internet domain name server.  With no arguments named reads /etc/named.boot, for any initial data, and listens for queries on the standard Internet port that requires root privilege.

OPTIONS

−d Print debugging information.  level is a number indicating the level of messages printed. 

−p Use a different port number. 

−b

Use bootfile rather than /etc/named.boot.

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 ‘domain’ line specifies that ‘berkeley.edu’ is the domain of the given server. 

The ‘primary’ line states that the file ‘named.db’ contains authoritative data for ‘berkeley.edu’.  The file ‘named.db’ contains data in the master file format, except that all domain names are relative to the origin; in this case, ‘berkeley.edu’ (see below for a more detailed description). 

The ‘secondary’ 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 for up to 10 tries at that address.  The secondary copy is also authoritative for the domain. 

The ‘cache’ line specifies that 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 currently one token, ‘IN’ for the 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)

NS an authoritative name server (domain)

MX a mail exchanger (domain)

CNAME
the canonical name for an alias (domain)

SOA marks the start of a zone of authority (5 numbers)

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)

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.

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

SIGEMT
Turns on debugging and each SIGEMT increments debug level.

SIGFPE
Turns off debugging completely

FILES

/etc/named.boot name server configuration boot file

/etc/named.pid the process id

/usr/tmp/named.run
debug output

/usr/tmp/named_dump.db
dump of the name servers database

SEE ALSO

kill(1), signal(3), resolver(5)

Sun Release 3.2  —  Last change: 25 April 1986