Provided by: dnswalk_2.0.2.dfsg.1-1_all bug

NAME

       dnswalk - A DNS database debugger

SYNOPSIS

       dnswalk [ -adilrfFm ] domain.

DESCRIPTION

       dnswalk  is  a  DNS debugger.  It performs zone transfers of specified domains, and checks
       the database in numerous ways  for  internal  consistency,  as  well  as  for  correctness
       according to accepted practices with the Domain Name System.

       The  domain  name  specified  on  the command line MUST end with a '.'.  You can specify a
       forward domain, such as  dnswalk  podunk.edu.   or  a  reverse  domain,  such  as  dnswalk
       3.2.1.in-addr.arpa.

OPTIONS

       -r     Recursively descend sub-domains of the specified domain.  Use with care.
       -a     Turn on warning of duplicate A records.  (see below)
       -d     Print  debugging  and  'status'  information  to  stderr.  (Use only if redirecting
              stdout)  See DIAGNOSTICS section.
       -m     Perform checks only if the zone has been modified since the previous run.
       -F     perform "fascist" checking.  When checking an A record, compare the  PTR  name  for
              each  IP  address  with  the  forward  name  and report mismatches.  (see below)  I
              recommend you try this option at least once to see what sorts of errors  pop  up  -
              you might be surprised!.
       -i     Suppress check for invalid characters in a domain name.  (see below)
       -l     Perform  "lame  delegation"  checking.   For every NS record, check to see that the
              listed host is indeed returning authoritative answers for this domain.
       ERRORS
              The following the list of error messages that dnswalk will  return  if  it  sees  a
              potential  problem  with  the  database.   Duplicate  messages  will  be suppressed
              automatically for each zone.  Error messages are prefixed by a keyword  indiciating
              the  message type: "WARN" (possible data problem), "FAIL" (failure to access data),
              or "BAD" (invalid data).  dnswalk exits with a return code equal to the  number  of
              "BAD" errors.
       X PTR Y: unknown host
              X  is  a PTR record to Y, but Y is not a valid host (no A record).  These are often
              left over from when someone deleted a host from the DNS and forgot  to  delete  the
              PTR record.
       X PTR Y: A record not found
              X  is  a  PTR record to Y, but the IP address associated with the PTR record is not
              listed as an address for Y.  There should be an A record for every valid IP address
              for a host.  Many Internet services will not talk to you if you have mismatched PTR
              records.
       X PTR Y: CNAME (to Z)
              X is a PTR record to Y, but Y is a CNAME to Z.   PTR  records  MUST  point  to  the
              canonical name of a host, not an alias.
       X CNAME Y: unknown host
              X is aliased to Y, but Y is not a valid host (no A record).
       X CNAME Y: CNAME (to Z)
              X is aliased to Y, but Y is aliased to Z.  CNAMEs should not be chained.
       X MX Y: unknown host
              X is an MX to Y, but Y is not a valid host (no A record).
       X MX Y: CNAME (to Z)
              X  is  an MX to Y, but Y is an alias for Z.  MX records must point to the canonical
              name, not an alias.
       X A Y: no PTR record
              X has an IP address Y, but there is no PTR record to map the IP address Y back to a
              hostname  (usually  X).  Many Internet servers (such as anonymous FTP servers) will
              not talk to addresses that don't have PTR records.
       warning: X has only one authoritative nameserver
              Zones must have at least one authoritative nameserver,  in  case  one  is  down  or
              unreachable.   Make  sure  the  parent  and  child  domains  list all authoritative
              nameservers for a zone.
       Cannot check X: no available nameservers!
              The  X  zone  was delegated with NS records but all the nameservers  for  the  zone
              are  either  unavailable  or  say  that  they have no data for the zone (are lame).
              Verify that  the X zone isn't a typo, and if so  make  sure  that  all  the  listed
              nameservers are configured to answer with data for the zone.
       X: invalid character(s) in name
              Allowable  characters in a domain name are the ASCII letters a through Z the digits
              0 through 9, and the "-" character.  A "." may be used only as a domain  separator.
              (checking can be suppressed with -i )
       X: domain occurred twice, forgot trailing '.'?
              A  sanity check which looks for "dom.ain.dom.ain." in a name.  This is often caused
              by forgetting to put a trailing '.' on the end of a name.
       (with -a switch)
       X: possible duplicate A record (glue of Z?)
              A duplicate A records is listed for X.  NOTE: this is  most  often  caused  by  the
              practice  of  always  putting  A records for all secondaries after NS glue records.
              While this is not an error, it is usually redundant and makes changing IP addresses
              later  more  difficult,  since  they  occur  more than one time in the file (and in
              multiple files).  You may get spurious errors, mostly because of a  quirk  in  BIND
              releases  before  4.9.x  that reports cached glue A records in a zone transfer even
              though they don't exist in the original zone file.
       (with -F switch)
       X A Y: points to Z
              X has Y for an IP address, but the PTR record associated with Y returns "Z" as  the
              name  associated  with that host.  This is not necessarily an error (for example if
              you have an A record for your domain name), but  can  be  useful  to  check  for  A
              records which point to the wrong host, or PTR records that point to the wrong host.
       Cannot find address for nameserver X
              This  error  is  generated  if  the  address for a delegated nameserver X cannot be
              resolved.  This could be a lame delegation (due to a  typo  in  delegation),  or  a
              temporary DNS error.
       (with -l switch)
       X NS Y: lame NS delegation
              Y  is a listed nameserver for zone X, but Y is not returning authoritative data for
              zone X.  This is usually the result of a lack of communication on the part  of  the
              respective  hostmasters.   Lame delegations are not fatal problems except in severe
              cases, they just tend to create significant increases in DNS traffic.   NS  records
              for  the  parent  and child domains should be consistent, and each server listed in
              the NS record MUST be able to answer with authoritative data,  either  by  being  a
              primary or secondary for the zone.
       Cannot get SOA record for X from Y (lame?)
              This  error  is  generated if dnswalk cannot get the SOA record for zone X from the
              nameserver Y.  This could mean a lame  delegation,  or  simply  that  the  host  is
              temporarily unreachable.

SEE ALSO

       RFC 1034 - "DOMAIN NAMES - CONCEPTS AND FACILITIES"
       RFC 1035 - "DOMAIN NAMES - IMPLEMENTATION AND SPECIFICATION"
       RFC 1123 - "Requirements for Internet Hosts -- Application and Support"
       Paul Albitz, Cricket Liu: "DNS and BIND" O'Reilly & Associates.

DIAGNOSTICS

       When  invoked  with  the  -d  option, dnswalk will print status information to stderr.  It
       consists  of  information  about  what  zone  is  being  checked,  and  a  single   letter
       corresponding to the resource record checked, and any errors.
       a      A record
       c      CNAME record
       p      PTR record
       m      MX record
       s      SOA record
       !      An error occurred
       .      A previous error in the zone was repeated, but suppressed.

BUGS

       dnswalk will make the directory tree before it has a chance to find out that you gave it a
       bogus domain name.
       When checking lots of hosts and lots of options, it is very slow.  Running  dnswalk  on  a
       machine with a local nameserver helps considerably.
       Perl's  gethostby{name,addr}()  routine  doesn't  seem  to  consistently  return  an error
       whenever it is unable to resolve an address.  Argh.   This  will  mean  lots  of  "no  PTR
       record"  and  "host  unknown"  errors  if  a server is unavailable, or for some reason the
       lookup fails.  You may get strange error  messages  if  your  perl  was  compiled  without
       support for herror().

AUTHOR

       David Barr <barr@cis.ohio-state.edu>

                                                                                       DNSWALK(1)