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), raw, and map.

       -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  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.

       -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 or map 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

       2024, Internet Systems Consortium