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$Id: named.8,v 1.5 2000/08/01 01:18:44 tale Exp $
.Dd Jun 30, 2000 .Dt NAMED 8 .Os BIND9 9 .Sh NAME .Nm named .Nd Internet domain name server (DNS) .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm named .Op Fl c Ar config-file .Op Fl d Ar debuglevel .Op Fl f g s .Op Fl n Ar #cpus .Op Fl p Ar port# .Op Fl t Ar directory .Op Fl u Ar user-id .Op Fl x Ar cache-file .Sh DESCRIPTION .Nm named is the ISC implementation of an Internet domain name server. See RFCs 1033, 1034, and 1035 for more information on the Internet domain name system. For historical reasons, the ISC's DNS software is known as BIND - Berkeley Internet Name Daemon - because it was originally supplied with BSD x releases.
p Without any arguments, .Nm named will read the default configuration file
a /etc/named.conf , read any initial data, and listen for queries. It is also possible to use the BIND9 name server as a lightweight resolver server .Nm lwresd . However when operating as a lightweight resolver server, .Nm named is functionally and logically distinct from a conventional name server. More information can be found in .Xr lwresd 8 .
p Although some command-line options can be used with .Nm named , the name server's behaviour is mainly controlled by its configuration file,
a /etc/named.conf . Refer to the BIND9 Administrator Reference Manual for further details.
p The options to .Nm named are as follows: l -tag -width Ds t Fl c use .Ar config-file as the configuration file instead of the default,
a /etc/named.conf .
t Fl d set the daemon's debug level to
.Ar debuglevel .
Debugging traces from
.Nm named
become more verbose as the debug level increases.
t Fl f run
.Nm named
in the foreground.
t Fl g run
.Nm named
in the foreground and force all logging to
.Dv stderr .
t Fl n create
.Ar #cpus
worker threads to take advantage of multiple CPUs.
If no option is given,
.Nm named
will try to determine the number of CPUs present and create
one thread per CPU. If
.Nm named
is unable to determine the number of CPUs, a single worker thread
is created.
t Fl p listen for queries on port
.Ar port#
instead of the default port number, 53.
t Fl s write memory usage statistics to
.Dv stdout
on exit.
This option is mainly of interest
to BIND9 developers and may be removed or changed in a future release.
t Fl t tells
.Nm named
to chroot() to
.Ar directory
immediately after reading its config file.
t Fl u run
.Nm named
as UID
.Ar user-id .
.Nm named
will change its UID after it has
carried out any privileged operations, such as
creating sockets that listen on privileged ports.
t Fl x load data from
.Ar cache-file .
into the cache of the default view.
This option must not be used.
It is only of interest
to BIND9 developers and may be removed or changed in a future release.
.El
.Sh SIGNALS
In routine operation, signals should not be used to \*qcontrol\*q the
name server.
.Nm rndc
should be used instead.
Sending the name server a
.Dv SIGHUP
signal forces a reload of the server.
A
.Dv SIGINT
or
.Dv SIGTERM
signal can be used to gracefully shut down the server.
Sending any other signals to the name server
will have an undefined outcome.
.Sh CONFIGURATION FILE FORMAT
.Nm named 's
configuration file is too complex to describe in detail here.
A complete description is provided in the BIND9 Administrator
Reference Manual.
.Sh FILES
l -tag -width /var/run/named.pid -compact t Pa /etc/named.conf default configuration file
t Pa /var/run/named.pid default process-id file
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr RFC1033 ,
.Xr RFC1034 ,
.Xr RFC1035 ,
.Xr named.conf 5 ,
.Xr zonefile 5 ,
.Xr rndc 8 ,
.Xr lwresd 8 ,
BIND9 Administrator Reference Manual, June 2000.