NAME

       tinydns-edit - edit the (source form of the) database served by tinydns/axfrdns

SYNOPSIS

       tinydns-edit data data.tmp add type name address

DESCRIPTION

       tinydns-edit  edits  the  data  file,  which  is  the  source form of the database that is
       compiled by tinydns-data(8) and that is served by tinydns(8) and axfrdns(8).   The  update
       to data is performed atomically, by first writing the updated database content to the file
       data.tmp and then renaming data.tmp to data .  The two files must, of  course,  reside  on
       the same volume in order that this can be achieved.

       On  success,  tinydns-edit returns zero.  If, for any reason, an error occurs it will exit
       with a non-zero code and data will not be changed.

       With the "add" verb,  tinydns-edit  appends  to  the  database  a  record  whose  type  is
       determined by type , with the fully-qualified name name and the IP address address .  type
       can be one of:

       ns     A '.' record is created.  This record specifies that the domain name  is  published
              by a DNS content server that is listening on the IP address address .

              The  name  of  the  DNS  content  server  is  not  directly specifiable.  Names are
              automatically assigned by tinydns-edit itself, following the pattern  [a-z].ns.name
              .   tinydns-edit  will  assign the first letter of the alphabet that is not already
              used in another '.' or '&' record as the name of  a  DNS  content  server.   If  no
              letters of the alphabet remain unused, tinydns-edit will fail.

              If a '.' or '&' record for the domain already exists, proxy DNS servers are allowed
              to cache the new record for the same length of time as they are  allowed  to  cache
              the existing records.  Otherwise, proxy DNS servers are allowed to cache the record
              for up to 3 days.

       childns
              A '&' record is created.  This record specifies  that  queries  for  names  in  the
              domain  name should be referred to a ("child") DNS content server that is listening
              on the IP address address .

              The name of the  DNS  content  server  is  not  directly  specifiable.   Names  are
              automatically  assigned by tinydns-edit itself, following the pattern [a-z].ns.name
              .  tinydns-edit will assign the first letter of the alphabet that  is  not  already
              used  in  another  '.'  or  '&'  record as the name of a DNS content server.  If no
              letters of the alphabet remain unused, tinydns-edit will fail.

              If a '.' or '&' record for the domain already exists, proxy DNS servers are allowed
              to  cache  the  new record for the same length of time as they are allowed to cache
              the existing records.  Otherwise, proxy DNS servers are allowed to cache the record
              for up to 3 days.

       mx     A  '@'  record  is created.  This record specifies that mail to names in the domain
              name should be sent to an SMTP server that is listening on the IP address address .

              The name of the SMTP server is not directly specifiable.  Names  are  automatically
              assigned  by  tinydns-edit  itself, following the pattern [a-z].mx.name .  tinydns-
              edit will assign the first letter of the alphabet  that  is  not  already  used  in
              another  '@'  record  as the name of an SMTP server.  If no letters of the alphabet
              remain unused, tinydns-edit will fail.

              It is not possible to specify the distance value for the SMTP server.  tinydns-edit
              will  leave  that  field blank, meaning that tinydns-data (8) will use whatever the
              default value is.

              If a '@' record for the domain already exists, proxy DNS  servers  are  allowed  to
              cache  the  new record for the same length of time as they are allowed to cache the
              existing records.  Otherwise, proxy DNS servers are allowed to cache the record for
              up to 1 day.

       host   A  '='  record  is created, that proxy DNS servers are allowed to cache for up to 1
              day.  This record specifies that the name name maps to the IP address  address  and
              vice versa.

              tinydns-edit  will  fail  if  a  '=' record already exists that uses either name or
              address .

       alias  A '+' record is created, that proxy DNS servers are allowed to cache for  up  to  1
              day.   This  record specifies that the name name maps to the IP address address but
              that there is no reverse mapping.

              Because this is an alias record, tinydns-edit will not  fail  if  there  happen  to
              already be existing records that use address .

SEE ALSO

       tinydns-data(8),

       http://cr.yp.to/djbdns.html

AUTHOR AND MODIFICATIONS

       This manual page was created by Jonathan de Boyne Pollard on 2001-04-06.

       2001-04-26:  A  new  AUTHOR  AND  MODIFICATIONS  section  was  added.   axfrdns(8)  is now
       mentioned.  The description of how server names were auto-generated was clarified.  A cut-
       and-paste error in the description of the "mx" type was corrected.

                                                                                  tinydns-edit(8)