BIND Configuration File Guide

Overview

BIND 8 is much more configurable than previous release of BIND. There are entirely new areas of configuration, such as access control lists and categorized logging. Many options that previously applied to all zones can now be used selectively. These features, plus a consideration of future configuration needs led to the creation of a new configuration file format.

The Configuration File

Example Configuration

Statements

A BIND 8 configuration consists of statements and comments. Statements end with a semicolon. Many statements contain a block of substatements, which are also terminated with a semicolon.

The following statements are supported:

acl

defines a named IP address matching list, for access control and other uses

include

includes a file

key

specifies key information for use in authentication and authorization

logging

specifies what the server logs, and where the log messages are sent

options

controls global server configuation options and sets defaults for other statements

server

sets certain configuration options on a per-server basis

zone

defines a zone

The logging and options statements may only occur once per configuration.

Comments

Converting from BIND 4.9.x

BIND 4.9.x configuration files can be converted to the new format by using src/bin/named/named-bootconf.pl, a perl script that is part of the BIND 8.1 source kit.