named [-c config-file] [-d debuglevel] [-f -g -s] [-n #cpus] [-p port#]
[-t directory] [-u user-id] [-v] [-x cache-file]
DESCRIPTION
named is a Domain Name System (DNS) server, part of the BIND 9 distribu
tion 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.
The options to named are as follows:
-c 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 direc
tory due to to a possible directory option in the configuration
file, config-file should be an absolute pathname.
-d set the daemon's debug level to debuglevel. Debugging traces from
named become more verbose as the debug level increases.
-f run named in the foreground.
-g run named in the foreground and force all logging to stderr.
-n create #cpus worker threads to take advantage of multiple CPUs.
If no option is given, named will try to determine the number of
CPUs present and create one thread per CPU. If named is unable
to determine the number of CPUs, a single worker thread is creat
ed.
-p listen for queries on port port# instead of the default port
number, 53.
-s write memory usage statistics to stdout on exit. This option is
mainly of interest to BIND9 developers and may be removed or
changed in a future release.
-t tells named to chroot() to directory as soon as it is finshed
processing command line arguments, before reading its configura
tion file. This should be used in conjunction with the -u op
tion, as chrooting a process running as root doesn't enhance se
curity on most systems - the way chroot() is defined allows a
process with root privileges to escape the chroot jail.
-u run named as UID user-id. named will change its UID after it has
carried out any 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 bind() to a privileged
port. Unfortunately, this means that the "-u" option only works
when named is run on 2.3.99-pre3 or later kernel, since previous
kernels did not allow privileges to be retained after setuid().
server. rndc should be used instead. Sending the name server a SIGHUP
signal forces a reload of the server. A SIGINT or SIGTERM signal can be
used to gracefully shut down the server. Sending any other signals to
the name server will have an undefined outcome.
FILES
/etc/named.conf default configuration file
/var/run/named.pid default process-id file
SEE ALSO
RFC1033, RFC1034, RFC1035, rndc(8), lwresd(8), BIND9 Administrator
Reference Manual, June 2000.
BIND9 Jun 30, 2000 2
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