NAMED-WIREFORMAT(1)

📦 version 9.21.26, in fedora 43, fedora 44

💖 NAMED-WIREFORMAT(1) 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to named-wireformat — it's part of BIND 9 and it's literally the translator bestie of the DNS world. 👑

✨ NAME ✨

named-wireformat — parse DNS wire format messages 🦋

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

named-wireformat [-b] [-d] [-h] [-m flag] [-p] [-r] [-s] [-t]
[{filename}]

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so named-wireformat reads a DNS message in wire format — and no, it doesn't care whether that's in hexadecimal form or just raw data — from a file or from standard input. then it translates the whole thing into text format so you can actually check whether it's formatted correctly. it's giving vibe check for DNS packets, fr fr. 🌈

like, it's basically the "does this even parse" detector and I'm obsessed with it. ✨

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

  • -b — best-effort parsing mode, we're being chill today 💆‍♀️. errors in the message content get ignored, as long as the message itself can still be parsed as valid DNS wire data. lowkey forgiving, highkey useful.
  • -d — read the input as raw binary data instead of hexadecimal text. yes ma'am, actual bytes. 🧚
  • -h — print out the help menu. your girl needs directions sometimes, it's fine. 🫶
  • -m flag — turn on memory debugging flags. the possible flags are usage, trace and record. 💀 (choose them wisely bestie)
  • -p — preserve the order of records in the message instead of sorting by name and type. chaotic order stays chaotic, periodt. 🍓
  • -r — after parsing and displaying the input message, it renders it back to wire format, parses that, and displays it again. this is used to confirm that parsing and rendering are idempotent — aka round-tripping shouldn't change a thing. main character energy only. 👑
  • -s — print memory statistics on shutdown. the receipts, basically. 📊
  • -t — parse the input as a TCP DNS message, which means it's got a two-byte length header. 🦋

⭐ ARGUMENTS ⭐

  • filename — if you specify it, the message to be parsed is read from this file. otherwise it's read from the standard input. no file? no problem. 💜

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

  • named-rrchecker(8) <#std-iscman-named-rrchecker> — go give her a visit, she's iconic too
  • BIND 9 Administrator Reference Manual

iykyk 💅

👑 Author 👑

Internet Systems Consortium

2026, Internet Systems Consortium

okay that's the whole page bestie, no cap, every flag accounted for 🌸

and for the cute sign-off: this is BIND 9 version 9.21.26, dated 2026-09-03, page NAMED-WIREFORMAT(1) — mwah, slay, go parse something. 💖✨🦋

📦 where this page comes from