named(1M)                                                 System Administration Commands                                                 named(1M)

NAME

       named - Internet domain name server

SYNOPSIS

       named [-fgsv] [-c config-file] [-d debug-level] [-n #cpus] [-p port] [-t directory] [-u user] [-x cache-file]

DESCRIPTION

       The named utility is a Domain Name System (DNS) server, part of the BIND 9 distribution from ISC. For more information on the DNS, see RFCs
       1033, 1034, and 1035.

       When invoked without arguments, named reads the default configuration file  /etc/named.conf,  reads  any  initial  data,  and  listens  for
       queries.

OPTIONS

       The following options are supported:

       -c config-file  Use  config-file  as the configuration file instead of the default /etc/named.conf. To ensure that reloading the configura-
                       tion file continues to work after the server has changed its working directory due to to a possible directory option in the
                       configuration file, config-file should be an absolute pathname.

       -d debug-level  Set the daemon's debug level to debug-level. Debugging traces from named become more verbose as the debug level increases.

       -f              Run the server in the foreground (that is, do not daemonize).

       -g              Run the server in the foreground and force all logging to stderr.

       -n #cpus        Create #cpus worker threads to take advantage of multiple CPUs. If not specified, named will try to determine the number of
                       CPUs present and create one thread per CPU. If it is unable to determine the number of CPUs, a single worker thread will be
                       created.

       -p port         Listen for queries on port port. If not specified, the default is port 53.

       -s              Write memory usage statistics to stdout on exit.

                       This option is mainly of interest to BIND 9 developers and might be removed or changed in a future release.

       -t directory    Change  the root directory using chroot(2) to directory after processing the command line arguments, but before reading the
                       configuration file.

                       This option should be used in conjunction with the -u option, as chrooting a process running as root doesn't enhance  secu-
                       rity on most systems; the way chroot() is defined allows a process with root privileges to escape a chroot jail.

       -u user         Set  the  real user ID using setuid(2) to user after completing privileged operations, such as creating sockets that listen
                       on privileged ports.

                       On Linux, named uses the kernel's capability mechanism to drop all root privileges except the ability to use  bind(3SOCKET)
                       to  bind to a privileged port and set process resource limits. Unfortunately, this means that the -u option works only when
                       named is run on kernel 2.2.18 or later, or kernel 2.3.99-pre3 or later, since previous kernels did not allow privileges  to
                       be retained after setuid().

       -v              Report the version number and exit.

       -x cache-file   Load data from cache-file into the cache of the default view.

                       This  option  must  not  be  used.  It is of interest only to BIND 9 developers and might be removed or changed in a future
                       release.

SIGNALS

       In routine operation, signals should not be used to control the nameserver; rndc(1M) should be used instead.

       SIGHUP                  Force a reload of the server.

       SIGINT, SIGTERM         Shut down the server.

       The result of sending any other signals to the server is undefined.

CONFIGURATION

       The named configuration file is too complex to describe in detail here. A complete description is provided in the BIND 9 Administrator Ref-
       erence Manual.

FILES

       /etc/named.conf         default configuration file

       /var/run/named.pid      default process-ID file

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE         |      ATTRIBUTE VALUE        |
       |Availability                 |SUNWbind9                    |
       |Interface Stability          |External                     |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       rndc(1M), chroot(2), setuid(2), bind(3SOCKET), attributes(5)

       RFC 1033, RFC 1034, RFC 1035

       BIND 9 Administrator Reference Manual

NOTES

       Source for BIND9 is available in the SUNWbind9S package.

SunOS 5.10                                                          15 Dec 2004                                                          named(1M)