REALMCTL(1)

📦 version 2.2.3, in arch rolling

💅 REALMCTL(1) — User Contributed Perl Documentation, but make it group-chat 💅

okay so this is the manual for realmctl, and it's giving very "I know Unix and I want my bestie to know it too" energy. No cap, every flag and every warning is still here. Let's go 💖

✨ NAME ✨

realmctl — send commands to the DNSSEC-Tools realms daemon.

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

realmctl [options]

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

The realmctl command sends commands to dtrealms, the DNSSEC-Tools realms daemon. In most cases, dtrealms will send a response to realmctl. realmctl will print a success or failure message, as appropriate. Only one option may be specified on a command line. Periodt 💅

💖 OPTIONS 💖

The following options are handled by realmctl. Bestie, this is the whole list — no skips, no "you'll figure it out" energy.

  • -allstart — starts all suspended realms. slay, wake them up ✨
  • -allstop — stops all running realms. okay everybody chill 💀
  • -cmd -- realm cmd args, -command -- realm cmd args — sends a command to the specified realm. The command given as cmd will be sent to the rollerd running in realm realm.

The double-dash given above is critical for proper argument parsing of the command line.

All command-line arguments, as args above, following the realm name and command name will be sent as the command.

Whatever output the command gives will be returned to realmctl, which will then print that output. The command's return code will be appended to the command's output. No attempt will be made to analyze the output for success or failure.

For example, this command will tell the realm giant-isp to stop rollover of zone bob.example.com:

$ realmctl -command -- giant-isp rollctl -skipzone bob.example.com
⚠️ Warning: This is an inherently dangerous command. When choosing a user under which the realm and rollover commands will be executed, be aware that this problem exists. realmctl may be modified in the future to restrict the commands that may be executed with this option. Like, for real, be careful with this one 😭
  • -display — starts the realms status GUI. cute lil window moment 🫶
  • -halt [now] — cleanly halts dtrealms execution.
  • -logfile logfile — sets the dtrealms log file to logfile. This must be a valid logging file, meaning that if logfile already exists, it must be a regular file. The only exceptions to this are if logfile is /dev/stdout or /dev/tty.
  • -loglevel loglevel — sets the dtrealms logging level to loglevel. This must be one of the valid logging levels defined in realmmgr.pm(3).

If a logging level is not specified, then the list of valid levels will be printed and realmctl will exit. The list is given in both text and numeric forms.

  • -logtz logtz — sets the dtrealms logging timezone to loglevel. This must be either gmt (for Greenwich Mean Time or local (for the host's local time.)
  • -nodisplay — stops the realms status GUI. bye bye window 👋
  • -realmstatus — gets the current status of all the realms from dtrealms. For each realm, the name, execution status, and zone counts are printed. The zone counts are, in order, the number of zones in normal state, the number of zones in ZSK rollover, the number of zones in KSK rollover, and the number of zones waiting in KSK phase 6. The zone counts are determined by sending the realm's rollover manager an information request. Therefore, if the zone is inactive, the zone counts are not included.

Example:

dev     active     normal: 18   ZSK: 3   KSK: 1   KSK phase 6: 0
test-r  inactive
money   active     normal: 10   ZSK: 0   KSK: 0   KSK phase 6: 1
  • -shutdown — synonym for -halt. same vibe, different name 💅
  • -startrealm realm — starts the suspended realm named by realm. Multiple realms can be specified on the command line. For instance, this command will send the startrealm command to dtrealms for three realms.
$ realmctl -startrealm testing production customers
  • -status — has dtrealms write several of its operational parameters to its log file. The parameters are also reported to realmctl, which prints them to the screen.
  • -stoprealm realm — stops the realm named by realm. Multiple realms can be specified on the command line. For instance, this command will send the stoprealm command to dtrealms for two realms.
$ realmctl -stoprealm big-isp-3 misc-customers
  • -Version — displays the version information for realmctl and the DNSSEC-Tools package. capital V, bestie, that's the vibe 👑
  • -quiet — prevents output from being given. Both error and non-error output is stopped. shhh 🤫
  • -help — displays a usage message. the classic "help me help you" moment 🎀

💀 EXIT CODES 💀

realmctl may give the following exit codes:

  • 0 — Successful execution
  • 1 — Error sending the command to dtrealms.
  • 2 — Missing realm argument.
  • 3 — Too many command options specified.
  • 4 — Missing argument for -cmd or -command.
  • 5 — No option specified.
  • 200 — dtrealms is not running.
  • 201 — Configuration file checks failed.

Copyright 2012-2014 SPARTA, Inc. All rights reserved. See the COPYING file included with the DNSSEC-Tools package for details.

🦋 AUTHOR 🦋

Wayne Morrison, tewok@tislabs.com

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

  • Net::DNS::SEC::Tools::realmmgr.pm(3), Net::DNS::SEC::Tools::realm.pm(3)
  • dtrealms(8), rollctl(8) rollerd(8)

Signed, sealed, delivered: perl v5.44.0, 2026-10-17, REALMCTL(1) — and yes bestie, this page ate 💅💖✨

📦 where this page comes from