named(1M)

NAME

named — Internet domain name server

SYNOPSIS

named [-4|-6] [-fgv] [-c config-file] [-d debuglevel] [-n ncpus] [-p port] [-t directory] [-u user-id]

DESCRIPTION

named is the Internet domain name system (DNS) server. See RFCs 1033, 1034, and 1035 for more information on DNS.

The configuration file contains information about where the name server gets its initial data. See named.conf(4) for details.

With no arguments, named reads the default configuration file, /etc/named.conf, reads any initial data, and listens for queries.

named requires superuser privileges to execute.

Options

-4

Use IPv4 only, even if the host machine is capable of IPv6.

-6

Use IPv6 only, even if the host machine is capable of IPv4.

-c config-file

Use config-file instead of the default configuration file, /etc/named.conf. To ensure that the configuration file can be reloaded after the server has changed its working directory (due to a possible directory option in the configuration file), config-file should be an absolute path name.

-d debuglevel

Set the debug level to debuglevel. Debugging traces from named become more verbose as the debug level increases.

-f

Run the server in the foreground; do not fork and daemonize. The default is to daemonize.

-g

Run the server in the foreground and force all logging to standard error.

-n ncpus

Create ncpus worker threads to take advantage of multiple CPUs. By default, named tries to determine the number of CPUs present and create one thread per CPU. If named cannot determine the number of CPUs, it creates a single worker thread.

-p port

Listen for queries on port number port. The default is port 53.

-t directory

Change root (chroot()) to directory after processing the command line arguments, but before reading the configuration file.

Caution: This option should be used with the -u option, because a chrooted process running as superuser does not enhance security and could escape a "chroot jail".

-u user-id

Specify the user that the server should run as after it initializes. The value specified may be either a user name or a numeric user ID.

-v

Report the version number and exit.

Signals

You can use the following signals to reload or shut down the server process, via the kill command (see kill(1)):

SIGHUP: Causes the server to read its configuration file and reload the database.
SIGINT and SIGTERM: Cause the server to shut down gracefully.

Sending any other signals to the named server will have undefined results.

The sig_named command can also be used to send signals to the server process. See sig_named(1M).

DIAGNOSTICS

Any errors encountered by named in the configuration file, master files, or in normal operation are logged with syslog and in the debug file, ./named.run (if debugging is on); then named quits.

AUTHOR

named was developed by the Internet Systems Consortium (ISC).

FILES

/etc/named.conf: Name server configuration file
/etc/rc.config.d/namesvrs_dns: Name server startup configuration file
/var/run/named.pid: Process ID
./named.run: Debug output

named(1M)

Technical documentation

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