Jump to content United States-English
HP.com Home Products and Services Support and Drivers Solutions How to Buy
» Contact HP
More options
HP.com home
HP-UX Reference > H

hosts_to_named(1M)

BIND 9.3
HP-UX 11i Version 3: February 2007
» 

Technical documentation

» Feedback
Content starts here

 » Table of Contents

 » Index

NAME

hosts_to_named — translate host table to name server file format

SYNOPSIS

hosts_to_named {-d domain}... {-n network-number [:mask]}... [-a network-number] [-b bootfile] [-c subdomain]... [-e subdomain]... [-f file] [-h host] [-m weight:mailhub]... [-o refresh:retry:expire: min] [-p domain]... [-q] [-r] [-s server]... [-t] [-u user] [-w] [-z internet-address]... [-A] [-ARPA] [-C file] [-D] [-F] [-H host-file] [-M] [-N netmask] [-S server]... [-Z internet-address]...

DESCRIPTION

hosts_to_named translates the host table, /etc/hosts, into files that are usable by the name server, named (see named(1M)). The format of these files is defined in RFC 1035. The files are created in the current directory. Once the host table is translated, the name server files can be maintained directly, or the translation can be repeated after each change to the host table.

If a line in the host table contains no domain names, all names on the line are assumed to be in the default domain. The first domain listed is the default domain. If data is being created for more than one domain or if certain options are used, there must be domain names in the host table to determine which names belong in which domain.

The name server data is referred to as resource records.

Options

hosts_to_named has the following options:

-a network-number

Add the information about hosts in the local domain from network network-number. This is the same as the -n option except that no pointer (PTR) data is created. This is useful when there are multiple domains on a network and a different server is handling the address-to-name mapping for network-number.

-A

Do not create name server data for aliases in the host table.

-ARPA

Create IP6.ARPA reverse lookup domain instead of IP6.INT. The pointer (PTR) records are placed in the file, db.IP6.ARPA.

-b bootfile

Name the boot file bootfile. The default is named.boot (if named is version 4.x) or named.conf (if named is version 8.x or 9.x) in the current directory.

-c subdomain

Create alias (CNAME) records for hosts in subdomain of the default domain. When a subdomain is delegated, it is useful to create aliases for the old names in the default domain that point to the new names in the subdomain. After creating the alias (CNAME) records, ignore lines in the host table that contain names in the subdomain. This option can be used more than once on the command line. This option requires domain names in the host table. When the old names in this domain are no longer used, they can be ignored with the -e option. If the subdomain name does not have dots, the default domain is appended to subdomain.

-C file

Create resource records from strings in the comment field of the host table. Each string in the comment field (except [no smtp]) is searched for in file. The format of each line of file is a string, a colon, and a resource record. If the string in the comment field matches a string before a colon in file, a resource record is added consisting of the name of the host followed by everything after the colon from the matching line in file. For example, host information (HINFO) records can be created by adding

360:IN HINFO hp9000s360 hp-ux

to file and adding 360 to comments in the host table.

-d domain

Create data for domain. This option can be used more than once on the command line if data is being created for more than one domain. The first domain listed is the "default domain". This option requires domain names in the host table for all hosts in domains except the default domain.

-D

Do not create name server data for domain names in the host table.

-e subdomain

Eliminate lines from the host table that contain names in the subdomain before translating. If the subdomain name does not have dots, the default domain is appended. This option may be used more than once on the command line. This option requires domain names in the host table.

-f file

Read command-line options from file. The -f option is not allowed within a file.

-F

Force the serial number to be incremented, even if the data has not changed. By default, the serial number is incremented for a domain only if the data has changed (pointer (PTR) data only).

-h host

Declare host to be the host in the start-of-authority (SOA) record that the name server data was created on. Also use host for the electronic mail address of the responsible user in the SOA record. The default is the host this command is run on. This option applies to all the domains generated by hosts_to_named. If this option is specified more than once, only the last value will be considered.

-H host-file

Use host-file instead of /etc/hosts.

-m weight:mailhub

For each canonical host name from the host table, create mail exchanger (MX) records with the specified weight and mail hub. The weight is a positive integer. The mail hub is a host name. If the mail hub name has no dots, the default domain is appended. This option can be used more than once on the command line.

-M

Do not create mail exchanger (MX) records for hosts in the host table.

-n network-number[:mask]

Create data for network-number. See the Operation subsection for the description of network-number. If only one domain is listed with the -d option, all data for network-number is assumed to be in domain. The optional subnet mask mask can be used instead of supplying each network-number for a subnet using multiple -n options. mask must be in dot notation. This option is not applicable for creating IPv6 addresses.

-N mask

Apply the default subnet mask mask to each network-number specified with the -n option except for ones with their subnet masks already provided. mask must be in dot notation. This is the same as supplying each network-number for a subnet using multiple -n options.

-o refresh:retry:expire:min

Set the values in the start-of-authority (SOA) record to those specified. See the Operation subsection for the description of the start-of-authority (SOA) record.

-p domain

Create only pointer (PTR) data for hosts in domain. This is useful when there are multiple domains on a network and a different server is responsible for domain, but this server is responsible for the address-to-name mapping. This option can be used more than once on the command line. This option requires domain names in the host table.

-q

Run quietly. No messages are printed.

-r

Create name server data indicating that the name server is authoritative for . (the root of the domain tree). The file created is db.root. Use this only when your network is isolated from the Internet. If other root servers exist for the isolated network, they must be added manually.

-s server

Create name server (NS) records that declare server is an authoritative name server for all of the domains created. If more than one server is authoritative, each needs to be declared. If the server name does not have any dots in it, the default domain is appended. If you do not specify the -s option, the default name server is the host on which you execute the script. You can use this option more than once on the command line to specify multiple name servers.

-S server

This option is the same as the -s option, but it only applies to the last domain specified with a -d option or the last network-number specified with a -n option. This option is for when server is backing up some, but not all, of the domains.

Note: At least one name server (either default or explicitly declared using the -s option) will be included in all the database files, in addition to those declared using the -S option.

-t

Create text (TXT) records from the comments that appear with host data. The comments will all be in lower case because the host table is translated to lower case. If [no smtp] appears in a comment, it is omitted. The [no smtp] is used to control mail exchanger (MX) data.

-u user

Declare user to be the electronic mail address of the person responsible for this domain. This is used in the start-of-authority (SOA) record. The format required in the name server data is user.host ,RI ( host must be a domain name). If given as user (without .host), the host on which this script is run is appended. If given as user@host, the @ is replaced with a dot (.). The default user is root. This option applies to all the domains generated by hosts_to_named. If you specify this option more than once, only the last value will be used.

-w

Create well-known services (WKS) data declaring that the host provides the SMTP service. This is done only when mail exchanger (MX) data is also being created and only for hosts without [no smtp] in a comment.

-z internet-address

Create a secondary boot file, boot.sec.save (if named is version 4.x) or conf.sec.save (if named is version 8.x or 9.x), from the primary boot file, listing internet-address as the server to load the data from. The boot file has the server back up the data on disk. The internet-address defaults to the value used with -Z. You can specify this option more than once to declare multiple servers from which data can be loaded.

Note: All the servers declared using this option will be listed for all the domains.

-Z internet-address

Create a secondary boot file, boot.sec (if named is version 4.x) or conf.sec (if named is version 8.x or 9.x), from the primary boot file, listing internet-address as the server to load the data from. The boot file does not have the server back up the data on disk. The internet-address defaults to the value used with -z. You can use this option more than once to declare multiple servers from which data can be loaded.

Note: All the servers declared using this option will be listed for all domains.

Operation

hosts_to_named translates the host table to lower case to help eliminate duplicate data. Since the name server treats uppercase and lowercase as equivalent, names that differ only in case are considered the same.

The hosts_to_named configuration file migration script does not add the listen-on-v6 option to the named.conf file on dual stack machine. In order to enable DNS services to listen on IPv6 interfaces, this entry needs to be added manually.

Alias (CNAME) records are created for subdomains delegated with the -c option. Lines from the host table that contain names in subdomains from the -c and -e options are removed from the lowercase copy of the host table.

The host table is then used to create the name server data for each network-number declared on the command line. Do not include the trailing 0's in the network number. No distinction is made between class A, B, or C addresses nor is there any understanding of subnets unless a subnet mask is supplied. Example network numbers are: 10 (for all addresses of the form 10.*.*.*), 10.1 (for addresses of the form 10.1.*.*), or 10.2.2 (for addresses of the form 10.2.2.*).

Address (A) records are created for mapping host names to IP addresses. Alias (CNAME) records are created for aliases of hosts that are not multi-homed. The data are placed in a file named db. DOMAIN where DOMAIN is the first part of the domain from the command line. For the domain div.inc.com, the file is named db.div. All other name server data goes in this file except the pointer (PTR) records described next.

Pointer (PTR) records are created for mapping IP addresses to host names. PTR records are placed in a file named db.NET where NET is the network number from the command line. Network 10 data are placed in db.10. Network 10.1 data are placed in db.10.1.

Address (AAAA) records and A6 records are created for mapping host names to IPv6 addresses.

Pointer (PTR) records are created for mapping IPv6 addresses to host names. The IPv6 PTR records are placed in db.IP6.ARPA, if the -ARPA option is specified; otherwise, they are placed in db.IP6.INT.

Mail exchanger (MX) records are created unless the -M option is used. The default MX record has a weight of 10 with the host itself as its mail exchanger. No default MX record is created for a host if [no smtp] is in the comment section of that line in the host table. MX records for each mail hub declared with the -m option are added for each host even if [no smtp] is in the comment section.

Well-known services (WKS) records are created for each host that handles SMTP mail (does not have [no smtp]) if the -w option is used. The only service listed is SMTP.

Text (TXT) records are created for comments associated with hosts in the host table if the -t option is used. The comments do not include [no smtp].

For each domain, a start-of-authority (SOA) record is created. The SOA record requires two domain names: the host that the data is created on and the electronic mail address of the person responsible. The -h and -u options influence the names. In addition, the SOA record requires 5 values: a serial number, a refresh time, a retry time, an expire time, and a minimum ttl (time to live). The first time the data is created, the serial number is set to 1, the refresh time is set to 3 hours, the retry time is set to 1 hour, the expire time is set to 1 week, and the minimum ttl is set to 1 day. The -o option changes these values except for the serial number. Each subsequent time hosts_to_named is run, the serial number is incremented. If other fields in the SOA record are modified, the changed values are retained.

If there are files named spcl.DOMAIN or spcl.NET in the current directory, $INCLUDE directives are added to the corresponding db.DOMAIN or db.NET file for the spcl file. In this way, special data can be added to the data generated by hosts_to_named.

The first time hosts_to_named is run, it creates a default boot file for a primary name server. Each subsequent time hosts_to_named is run, the boot file is updated if necessary. New entries are made in the boot file for any additional networks or domains not already in the boot file. No entries are deleted from the boot file.

The boot file for a caching-only server, boot.cacheonly (if bind is version 4.x) or conf.cacheonly (if bind is version 8.x or 9.x), is created if it does not exist. The boot files for secondary servers, (boot.sec.save or conf.sec.save) and (boot.sec or conf.sec), are created if the -z or -Z options are used. The boot files for secondary servers are created new each time from the primary server boot file so that they are equivalent.

EXAMPLES

1.

Create name server data for networks 15.19.8 and 15.19.9 in div.inc.com.

$ hosts_to_named -d div.inc.com -n 15.19.8 -n 15.19.9

2.

Create name server data for networks 15.19.8 and 15.19.9 in div.inc.com. Ignore aliases in the host table and include two mail hubs: aaa.div.inc.com and bbb.mkt.inc.com. Read all of the options from a file.

$ hosts_to_named -f option_file

option_file contains the following lines:

-d div.inc.com -n 15.19.8 -n 15.19.9 -m 20:aaa -m 30:bbb.mkt.inc.com -A

3.

Network 15.19.15 has hosts in the xx.inc.com domain and the div.inc.com domain. Create name server data for xx.inc.com. Create only pointer (PTR) data for hosts in div.inc.com on network 15.19.15 (this requires the hosts in div.inc.com to have the canonical name or an alias of the form x.div.inc.com).

$ hosts_to_named -d xx.inc.com -n 15.19.15 -p div.inc.com

4.

Create name server data for network 15.19.8 in div.inc.com. Include div.inc.com data from network 15.19.15 but do not create pointer (PTR) data for 15.19.15 since that is being handled by the xx.inc.com server.

$ hosts_to_named -d div.inc.com -n 15.19.8 -a 15.19.15

5.

Create name server data for multiple domains div1.inc.com, div2.inc.com and div3.inc.com. You must declare 15.18.1.1 as the host in the start-of-authority (SOA) record for all the domains. Also, create a secondary boot file from the primary boot file listing 15.18.1.1 and 15.18.2.1 as the servers to load the data from, to all the domains. Declare 15.18.2.1 as an authoritative name server for the domain div2.inc.com in addition to the default server.

$ hosts_to_named -f option_file

option_file contains the following lines:

-d div1.inc.com -n 15.18.1 -d div2.inc.com -n 15.18.2 -S 15.18.2.1 -d div3.inc.com -n 15.18.3 -h 15.18.1.1 -z 15.18.1.1 -z 15.18.2.1

AUTHOR

hosts_to_named was developed by HP.

FILES

/etc/hosts

The host table

named.boot

Primary server boot file (version 4.x)

named.conf

Primary server boot file (version 8.x or 9.x)

boot.cacheonly

Caching only server boot file (version 4.x)

conf.cacheonly

Caching only server boot file (version 8.x or 9.x)

boot.sec.save

Secondary server boot file (version 4.x)

conf.sec.save

Secondary server boot file (version 8.x or 9.x)

boot.sec

Secondary server boot file (version 4.x)

conf.sec

Secondary server boot file (version 8.x or 9.x)

db.127.0.0

Pointer information for 127.0.0.1

db.cache

Stub cache file for root server addresses

db.root

Data for servers for the root domain

db.DOMAIN

Address and other data for a domain

db.DOMAIN.in-addr

Pointer data for all network-numbers

db.NET

Pointer data for a network-number

db.IP6.INT

Pointer data for a IPv6 network-number

db.IP6.ARPA

Pointer data for a IPv6 network-number in IP6.ARPA domain

SEE ALSO

named(1M).

Requests for Comments (RFC): 1034, 1035, available online at http://www.rfc-editor.org/.

HP-UX IP Address and Client Management Administrator's Guide, available online at http://docs.hp.com.

BIND 9 Administrator Reference Manual, available from the Internet Systems Consortium at http://www.isc.org/sw/bind/arm93.

Printable version
Privacy statement Using this site means you accept its terms Feedback to webmaster
© 1983-2007 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.