From Linux Man Pages
named - Internet domain name server
SYNOPSIS
named [ -4 ] [ -6 ] [ -c config-file ] [ -d debug-level ] [ -f ] [
-g ] [ -n #cpus ] [ -p port ] [ -s ] [ -t directory ] [ -u user ]
[ -v ] [ -x cache-file ]
DESCRIPTION
named is a Domain Name System (DNS) server, part of the BIND 9 distri-
bution from ISC. For more information on the DNS, see RFCs 1033, 1034,
and 1035.
When invoked without arguments, named will read the default configura-
tion 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 configu-
ration 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.
-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.
-t directory
chroot() to directory after processing the command line argu-
ments, 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() 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() to a priv-
ileged 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().
-v Report the version number 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 name-
server; 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 Refer-
ence Manual.
FILES
/etc/named.conf
The default configuration file.
/var/run/named.pid
The default process-id file.
RELATED
RFC 1033, RFC 1034, RFC 1035, rndc(8), lwresd(8), BIND 9 Administrator
Reference Manual.
CATEGORY