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), and
              raw.

       -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 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 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

       2025, Internet Systems Consortium