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NAMED-CHECKZONE(8)                  BIND 9                  NAMED-CHECKZONE(8)



NAME
       named-checkzone - zone file validity checking or converting tool

SYNOPSIS
       named-checkzone [-d] [-h] [-j] [-q] [-v] [-c class] [-f format] [-F
       format] [-J filename] [-i mode] [-k mode] [-m mode] [-M mode] [-n mode]
       [-l ttl] [-L serial] [-o filename] [-r mode] [-s style] [-S mode] [-t
       directory] [-T mode] [-w directory] [-D] [-W mode] {zonename}
       {filename}

DESCRIPTION
       named-checkzone checks the syntax and integrity of a zone file. It
       performs the same checks as named does when loading a zone. This makes
       named-checkzone useful for checking zone files before configuring them
       into a name server.

OPTIONS

       -d     This option enables debugging.

       -h     This option prints the usage summary and exits.

       -q     This option sets quiet mode, which only sets an exit code to
              indicate successful or failed completion.

       -v     This option prints the version of the named-checkzone program
              and exits.

       -j     When loading a zone file, this option tells named to read the
              journal if it exists. The journal file name is assumed to be the
              zone file name with the string .jnl appended.

       -J filename
              When loading the zone file, this option tells named to read the
              journal from the given file, if it exists. This implies -j.

       -c class
              This option specifies the class of the zone. If not specified,
              IN is assumed.

       -i mode
              This option performs post-load zone integrity checks. Possible
              modes are full (the default), full-sibling, local,
              local-sibling, and none.

              Mode full checks that MX records refer to A or AAAA records
              (both in-zone and out-of-zone hostnames). Mode local only checks
              MX records which refer to in-zone hostnames.

              Mode full checks that SRV records refer to A or AAAA records
              (both in-zone and out-of-zone hostnames). Mode local only checks
              SRV records which refer to in-zone hostnames.

              Mode full checks that delegation NS records refer to A or AAAA
              records (both in-zone and out-of-zone hostnames). It also checks
              that glue address records in the zone match those advertised by
              the child.  Mode local only checks NS records which refer to
              in-zone hostnames or verifies that some required glue exists,
              i.e., when the name server is in a child zone.

              Modes full-sibling and local-sibling disable sibling glue
              checks, but are otherwise the same as full and local,
              respectively.

              Mode none disables the checks.

       -f format
              This option specifies the format of the zone file. Possible
              formats are text (the default), raw, and map.

       -F format
              This option specifies the format of the output file specified.
              For named-checkzone, this does not have any effect unless it
              dumps the zone contents.

              Possible formats are text (the default), which is the standard
              textual representation of the zone, and map, raw, and raw=N,
              which store the zone in a binary format for rapid loading by
              named.  raw=N specifies the format version of the raw zone file:
              if N is 0, the raw file can be read by any version of named; if
              N is 1, the file can only be read by release 9.9.0 or higher.
              The default is 1.

       -k mode
              This option performs check-names checks with the specified
              failure mode.  Possible modes are fail, warn (the default), and
              ignore.

       -l ttl This option sets a maximum permissible TTL for the input file.
              Any record with a TTL higher than this value causes the zone to
              be rejected. This is similar to using the max-zone-ttl option in
              named.conf.

       -L serial
              When compiling a zone to raw or map format, this option sets the
              "source serial" value in the header to the specified serial
              number. This is expected to be used primarily for testing
              purposes.

       -m mode
              This option specifies whether MX records should be checked to
              see if they are addresses. Possible modes are fail, warn (the
              default), and ignore.

       -M mode
              This option checks whether a MX record refers to a CNAME.
              Possible modes are fail, warn (the default), and ignore.

       -n mode
              This option specifies whether NS records should be checked to
              see if they are addresses. Possible modes are fail, warn (the
              default), and ignore.

       -o filename
              This option writes the zone output to filename. If filename is
              -, then the zone output is written to standard output.

       -r mode
              This option checks for records that are treated as different by
              DNSSEC but are semantically equal in plain DNS. Possible modes
              are fail, warn (the default), and ignore.

       -s style
              This option specifies the style of the dumped zone file.
              Possible styles are full (the default) and relative. The full
              format is most suitable for processing automatically by a
              separate script.  The relative format is more human-readable and
              is thus suitable for editing by hand. This does not have any
              effect unless it dumps the zone contents. It also does not have
              any meaning if the output format is not text.

       -S mode
              This option checks whether an SRV record refers to a CNAME.
              Possible modes are fail, warn (the default), and ignore.

       -t directory
              This option tells named to chroot to directory, so that include
              directives in the configuration file are processed as if run by
              a similarly chrooted named.

       -T mode
              This option checks whether Sender Policy Framework (SPF) records
              exist and issues a warning if an SPF-formatted TXT record is not
              also present. Possible modes are warn (the default) and ignore.

       -w directory
              This option instructs named to chdir to directory, so that
              relative filenames in master file $INCLUDE directives work. This
              is similar to the directory clause in named.conf.

       -D     This option dumps the zone file in canonical format.

       -W mode
              This option specifies whether to check for non-terminal
              wildcards. Non-terminal wildcards are almost always the result
              of a failure to understand the wildcard matching algorithm (RFC
              4592). Possible modes are warn (the default) and ignore.

       zonename
              This indicates the domain name of the zone being checked.

       filename
              This is the name of the zone file.

RETURN VALUES
       named-checkzone returns an exit status of 1 if errors were detected and
       0 otherwise.

SEE ALSO
       named(8), named-checkconf(8), named-compilezone(8), RFC 1035, BIND 9
       Administrator Reference Manual.

AUTHOR
       Internet Systems Consortium

COPYRIGHT
       2023, Internet Systems Consortium



9.16.42                                                     NAMED-CHECKZONE(8)