NAMED-CHECKZONE(8)

🌸 NAME 🌸

okay so welcome to the NAMED-CHECKZONE(8) page, bestie! named-checkzone is the zone file validity checking or converting tool. Iconic. It checks the syntax and integrity of a zone file, and it performs the same checks as named does when loading a zone. That makes it super useful for checking zone files before configuring them into a name server. slay. ✨

✨ 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, which is literally why it's so handy for checking zone files before you configure them into a name server. no cap. 🫶

💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -d — enables debugging. detective mode, bestie. 🔍
• -h — prints the usage summary and exits. bye for now! 👋
• -q — sets quiet mode, which only sets an exit code to indicate successful or failed completion. minimal words, maximum vibes. 🤫
• -v — prints the version of the named-checkzone program and exits. flex those digits. 🔥
• -j — when loading a zone file, this 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. cute little suffix behavior. 🎀
• -J filename — when loading the zone file, this tells named to read the journal from the given file, if it exists. this implies -j. okay, so it's -j with extra specifics. 💖
• -c class — specifies the class of the zone. if not specified, IN is assumed. default behavior is giving IN, as always. 👑
• -i mode — 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. sometimes self-care is turning off the checks. 💅

• -f format — specifies the format of the zone file. possible formats are text (the default), raw, and map. text is the default, as the universe intended. 🌈
• -F format — 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. numbers matter, bestie. 🧚

• -k mode — performs check-names checks with the specified failure mode. possible modes are fail, warn (the default), and ignore. choose your drama level. 💀
• -l ttl — 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. respect the limit or get rejected, iykyk. 🚫
• -L serial — when compiling a zone to raw or map format, this sets the "source serial" value in the header to the specified serial number. this is expected to be used primarily for testing purposes. testing era. 🧪
• -m mode — specifies whether MX records should be checked to see if they are addresses. possible modes are fail, warn (the default), and ignore. MX, are you an address or not? 💌
• -M mode — checks whether a MX record refers to a CNAME. possible modes are fail, warn (the default), and ignore. CNAME drama alert. 😭
• -n mode — specifies whether NS records should be checked to see if they are addresses. possible modes are fail, warn (the default), and ignore. NS, same question, bestie. 🌸
• -o filename — writes the zone output to filename. if filename is -, then the zone output is written to standard output. hello, -, you iconic little dash. 🎀
• -r mode — 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. DNSSEC vs plain DNS, the eternal vibe check. 🦋
• -s style — 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. so yes, context is everything. 💅
• -S mode — checks whether an SRV record refers to a CNAME. possible modes are fail, warn (the default), and ignore. SRV said what it said. 🌟
• -t directory — tells named to chroot to directory, so that include directives in the configuration file are processed as if run by a similarly chrooted named. chroot-chroot, bestie. 🐚
• -T mode — 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. SPF said don't forget the TXT. 🫶
• -w directory — 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. relative paths found shaking. 📂
• -D — dumps the zone file in canonical format. canonical queen behavior. 👑
• -W mode — 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. wildcard lore, no cap. 🌀
• zonename — indicates the domain name of the zone being checked. like, the actual zone name. 🏷️
• filename — this is the name of the zone file. the file itself. the main character. 📄

🫶 RETURN VALUES 🫶

named-checkzone returns an exit status of 1 if errors were detected and 0 otherwise. okay so simple: bad vibes 1, good vibes 0. ✨

🔍 SEE ALSO 🔍

• named(8)
• named-checkconf(8)
• named-compilezone(8)
• RFC 1035
• BIND 9 Administrator Reference Manual

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Internet Systems Consortium. iconic organization, honestly. 👑

🎀 COPYRIGHT 🎀

2024, Internet Systems Consortium

---

💌 okay that's the whole page, bestie — this one's from BIND 9 source/version 9.16.50-RH, with the 2024 copyright date. mwah! 💋