NAMED(8-BSD) RISC/os Reference Manual NAMED(8-BSD)
NAME
named - Internet domain name server
SYNOPSIS
named [ -d debuglevel ] [ -p port# ] [{-b} bootfile ]
DESCRIPTION
named is the Internet domain name server. See Chapter 15 in
the RISC/os System Administrator's Guide for more informa-
tion on the Internet name-domain system. Without any argu-
ments, 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
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primary zone files.
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 Chapter 15
of the Risc/os System Administator's Guide. All domain names
are relative to the origin, in this case, ``Berkeley.EDU''
(see below for a more detailed description). The second
``primary'' line states that the file ``ucbhosts.rev'' con-
tains 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
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forwarders line unless it is in ``slave'' mode. The for-
warding facility is useful to cause a large sitewide cache
to be generated on a master, and to reduce traffic over
links to 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)
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MX a mail exchanger (domain)
CNAME the canonical name for an alias (domain)
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)
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
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minimum value is the time-to-live used by records in the
file with no explicit time-to-live value.
NOTES
/etc/named.boot must be created by the system administrator
before named can be started by the startup script netdaemon.
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 data-
base.
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 compiled 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
systems without SIGUSR2).
FILES
/etc/named.boot name server configuration boot file
/etc/named.pid the process id
/etc/named.d/named.boot sample configuration file
/etc/named.d/named.boot.master sample configuration file
/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
gethostbyname(3N), resolver(3), signal(3C) in the
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Programmer's Reference Manual.
hostname(1), kill(1) in the User's Reference Manual.
Chapter 15, Name Server Operations Guide for BIND, in the
RISC/os System Administrator's Guide.
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