NAMED-JOURNALPRINT(8)

💖 NAME 💖

ok so named-journalprint — literally the tool that prints out your zone journal in human-readable form. that's the whole vibe ✨

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

named-journalprint [-c serial] [-dux] {journal}

that's it, that's the whole thing bestie 🫶

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so picture this: named-journalprint scans the contents of a zone journal file and prints it out in human-readable form — or, if you're feeling spicy, it optionally converts it to a different journal file format. versatility icon 👑

so what even is a journal file? they get created automatically by named whenever changes are made to dynamic zones (like, say, by nsupdate). they record every single addition or deletion of a resource record — in binary format, no less 😭 — which is what lets the changes get re-applied to the zone when the server restarts after a shutdown or a crash. really giving "main character energy" in the reliability department. and by default, the name of the journal file is made by just appending the extension .jnl to the name of the corresponding zone file. cute, simple, done 💅

so named-journalprint takes a given journal file and converts its contents into human-readable text format. every line starts with add or del — telling you whether the record was added or deleted — and then continues with the resource record in master-file format. readable at a glance, fr fr 🌈

now, the -c (compact) option gives you a way to shrink a journal by removing (most/all) transactions prior to the serial number you specify. ⚠️ but like, huge disclaimer: this option must not be used while named is running, and it can cause data loss if the zone file hasn't been updated to contain the data being removed from the journal. use with extreme caution. like, no cap, extreme. 💀

the -x option makes it print additional data about the journal file — at the beginning of the output and before each group of changes. extra context, we love to see it 🦋

then there's -u (upgrade) and -d (downgrade), which recreate the journal file with a modified format version. heads up: the existing journal file gets replaced. 🔥 -d writes out the journal in the format used by versions of BIND up to 9.16.11; -u writes it out in the format used by versions since 9.16.13. and yes, 9.16.12 is omitted — due to a journal-formatting bug in that release 🙈 (rip to that one version, honestly). note that these options must not be used while named is running either. periodt.

seriously bestie: -c, -u, and -d are all "don't run this while named is up" territory. treat that like a rule of the universe 🌸

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

• named(8)
• nsupdate(1)
• BIND 9 Administrator Reference Manual

go read them, iykw1 😌📚

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✨ AUTHOR ✨

Internet Systems Consortium — the icons behind all this 💜

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💅 COPYRIGHT 💅

2024, Internet Systems Consortium. all rights reserved, slay 🎀

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and that's the whole page! this one's from the BIND 9 manual, version 9.16.50-RH, dated just as it dropped — go off, named-journalprint, you ate and left no crumbs 👑💖