This manual page is for Mac OS X version 10.6.3

Reading manual pages

NAMED(8)                                            BIND9                                           NAMED(8)



NAME
       named - Internet domain name server

SYNOPSIS
       named [-4] [-6] [-c config-file] [-d debug-level] [-f] [-g] [-m flag] [-n #cpus] [-p port] [-s]
             [-S #max-socks] [-t directory] [-u user] [-v] [-V] [-x cache-file]

DESCRIPTION
       named 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 will read the default configuration file /etc/named.conf, read
       any initial data, and listen for queries.

OPTIONS
       -4
           Use IPv4 only even if the host machine is capable of IPv6.  -4 and -6 are mutually exclusive.

       -6
           Use IPv6 only even if the host machine is capable of IPv4.  -4 and -6 are mutually exclusive.

       -c config-file
           Use config-file as the configuration file instead of the default, /etc/named.conf. To ensure that
           reloading the configuration 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 (i.e. do not daemonize).

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

       -m flag
           Turn on memory usage debugging flags. Possible flags are usage, trace, record, size, and mctx.
           These correspond to the ISC_MEM_DEBUGXXXX flags described in <isc/mem.h>.

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

       -S #max-socks
           Allow named to use up to #max-socks sockets.
                  Warning: This option should be unnecessary for the vast majority of users. The use of this
                  option could even be harmful because the specified value may exceed the limitation of the
                  underlying system API. It is therefore set only when the default configuration causes
                  exhaustion of file descriptors and the operational environment is known to support the
                  specified number of sockets. Note also that the actual maximum number is normally a little
                  fewer than the specified value because named reserves some file descriptors for its
                  internal use.

       -t directory
           Chroot to directory after processing the command line arguments, but before reading the
           configuration file.
                  Warning: This option should be used in conjunction with the -u option, as chrooting a
                  process running as root doesn't enhance security on most systems; the way chroot(2) is
                  defined allows a process with root privileges to escape a chroot jail.

       -u user
           Setuid to user after completing privileged operations, such as creating sockets that listen on
           privileged ports.
                  Note: On Linux, named uses the kernel's capability mechanism to drop all root privileges
                  except the ability to bind(2) to a privileged port and set process resource limits.
                  Unfortunately, this means that the -u option only works 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(2).

       -v
           Report the version number and exit.

       -V
           Report the version number and build options, and exit.

       -x cache-file
           Load data from cache-file into the cache of the default view.
                  Warning: This option must not be used. It is only of interest to BIND 9 developers and may
                  be removed or changed in a future release.

SIGNALS
       In routine operation, signals should not be used to control the nameserver; rndc 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 Reference Manual.

FILES
       /etc/named.conf
           The default configuration file.

       /var/run/named/named.pid
           The default process-id file.

SEE ALSO
       RFC 1033, RFC 1034, RFC 1035, named-checkconf(8), named-checkzone(8), rndc(8), lwresd(8),
       named.conf(5), BIND 9 Administrator Reference Manual.

AUTHOR
       Internet Systems Consortium

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (C) 2004-2008 Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. ("ISC")
       Copyright (C) 2000, 2001, 2003 Internet Software Consortium.



BIND9                                           June 30, 2000                                       NAMED(8)