Provided by: bind9_9.18.30-0ubuntu0.20.04.2_amd64 
NAME
named - Internet domain name server
SYNOPSIS
named [ [-4] | [-6] ] [-c config-file] [-C] [-d debug-level] [-D string] [-E engine-name] [-f] [-g] [-L
logfile] [-M option] [-m flag] [-n #cpus] [-p port] [-s] [-t directory] [-U #listeners] [-u user] [-v]
[-V] [-X lock-file]
DESCRIPTION
named is a Domain Name System (DNS) server, part of the BIND 9 distribution from ISC. For more
information on the DNS, see RFC 1033, RFC 1034, and RFC 1035.
When invoked without arguments, named reads the default configuration file /etc/bind/named.conf, reads
any initial data, and listens for queries.
OPTIONS
-4 This option tells named to use only IPv4, even if the host machine is capable of IPv6. -4 and -6
are mutually exclusive.
-6 This option tells named to use only IPv6, even if the host machine is capable of IPv4. -4 and -6
are mutually exclusive.
-c config-file
This option tells named to use config-file as its configuration file instead of the default,
/etc/bind/named.conf. To ensure that the configuration file can be reloaded after the server has
changed its working directory due to to a possible directory option in the configuration file,
config-file should be an absolute pathname.
-C This option prints out the default built-in configuration and exits.
NOTE: This is for debugging purposes only and is not an accurate representation of the actual
configuration used by named at runtime.
-d debug-level
This option sets the daemon's debug level to debug-level. Debugging traces from named become more
verbose as the debug level increases.
-D string
This option specifies a string that is used to identify a instance of named in a process listing.
The contents of string are not examined.
-E engine-name
When applicable, this option specifies the hardware to use for cryptographic operations, such as a
secure key store used for signing.
When BIND 9 is built with OpenSSL, this needs to be set to the OpenSSL engine identifier that
drives the cryptographic accelerator or hardware service module (usually pkcs11).
-f This option runs the server in the foreground (i.e., do not daemonize).
-g This option runs the server in the foreground and forces all logging to stderr.
-L logfile
This option sets the log to the file logfile by default, instead of the system log.
-M option
This option sets the default (comma-separated) memory context options. The possible flags are:
• fill: fill blocks of memory with tag values when they are allocated or freed, to assist
debugging of memory problems; this is the implicit default if named has been compiled with
--enable-developer.
• nofill: disable the behavior enabled by fill; this is the implicit default unless named has been
compiled with --enable-developer.
-m flag
This option turns on memory usage debugging flags. Possible flags are usage, trace, record, size,
and mctx. These correspond to the ISC_MEM_DEBUGXXXX flags described in <isc/mem.h>.
-n #cpus
This option creates #cpus worker threads to take advantage of multiple CPUs. If not specified,
named tries to determine the number of CPUs present and creates one thread per CPU. If it is
unable to determine the number of CPUs, a single worker thread is created.
-p value
This option specifies the port(s) on which the server will listen for queries. If value is of the
form <portnum> or dns=<portnum>, the server will listen for DNS queries on portnum; if not not
specified, the default is port 53. If value is of the form tls=<portnum>, the server will listen
for TLS queries on portnum; the default is 853. If value is of the form https=<portnum>, the
server will listen for HTTPS queries on portnum; the default is 443. If value is of the form
http=<portnum>, the server will listen for HTTP queries on portnum; the default is 80.
-s This option writes memory usage statistics to stdout on exit.
NOTE:
This option is mainly of interest to BIND 9 developers and may be removed or changed in a future
release.
-S #max-socks
This option is deprecated and no longer has any function.
WARNING:
This option should be unnecessary for the vast majority of users. The use of this option could even
be harmful, because the specified value may exceed the limitation of the underlying system API. It is
therefore set only when the default configuration causes exhaustion of file descriptors and the
operational environment is known to support the specified number of sockets. Note also that the actual
maximum number is normally slightly fewer than the specified value, because named reserves some file
descriptors for its internal use.
-t directory
This option tells named to chroot to directory after processing the command-line arguments, but
before reading the configuration file.
WARNING:
This option should be used in conjunction with the -u option, as chrooting a process running as root
doesn't enhance security on most systems; the way chroot is defined allows a process with root
privileges to escape a chroot jail.
-U #dispatches
This option specifies the number of per-interface UDP #dispatches that named should use to handle
the outgoing (recursive) UDP connection, to reduce contention between the resolver threads.
If not specified, named calculates a default value based on the number of detected CPUs: 1 for a
single CPU, and the number of detected CPUs minus one for machines with more than 1 CPU.
This cannot be increased to a value higher than the number of CPUs (see -n on how to override the
value).
WARNING:
This option should be unnecessary for the vast majority of users, and will be removed in the next
version of BIND 9.
-u user
This option sets the setuid to user after completing privileged operations, such as creating
sockets that listen on privileged ports.
NOTE:
On Linux, named uses the kernel's capability mechanism to drop all root privileges except the ability
to bind to a privileged port and set process resource limits. Unfortunately, this means that the -u
option only works when named is run on kernel 2.2.18 or later, or kernel 2.3.99-pre3 or later, since
previous kernels did not allow privileges to be retained after setuid.
-v This option reports the version number and exits.
-V This option reports the version number, build options, supported cryptographics algorithms, and
exits.
-X lock-file
This option acquires a lock on the specified file at runtime; this helps to prevent duplicate
named instances from running simultaneously. Use of this option overrides the lock-file option in
named.conf. If set to none, the lock file check is disabled.
SIGNALS
In routine operation, signals should not be used to control the nameserver; rndc should be used instead.
SIGHUP This signal forces a reload of the server.
SIGINT, SIGTERM
These signals shut down the server.
The result of sending any other signals to the server is undefined.
CONFIGURATION
The named configuration file is too complex to describe in detail here. A complete description is
provided in the BIND 9 Administrator Reference Manual.
named inherits the umask (file creation mode mask) from the parent process. If files created by named,
such as journal files, need to have custom permissions, the umask should be set explicitly in the script
used to start the named process.
FILES
/etc/bind/named.conf
The default configuration file.
/run/named.pid
The default process-id file.
SEE ALSO
RFC 1033, RFC 1034, RFC 1035, named-checkconf(8), named-checkzone(8), rndc(8), named.conf(5), BIND 9
Administrator Reference Manual.
AUTHOR
Internet Systems Consortium
COPYRIGHT
2025, Internet Systems Consortium