NAMED(8) BIND 9 NAMED(8)
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 user] [-v] [-V] ]
DESCRIPTION
named is a Domain Name System (DNS) server, part of the BIND 9 distribu-
tion from ISC. For more information on the DNS, see ]8;;https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1033.html\RFC 1033]8;;\, ]8;;https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1034.html\RFC 1034]8;;\,
and ]8;;https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1035.html\RFC 1035]8;;\.
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 ma-
chine is capable of IPv6. -4 and -6 are mutually exclusive.
-6 This option tells named to use only IPv6, even if the host ma-
chine 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 op-
tion in the configuration file, config-file should be an absolute
pathname.
-C This option prints out the default built-in configuration and ex-
its.
NOTE: This is for debugging purposes only and is not an accurate
representation of the actual configuration used by named at run-
time.
-d debug-level
This option sets the daemon's debug level to debug-level. Debug-
ging traces from named become more verbose as the debug level in-
creases.
-D string
This option specifies a string that is used to identify a in-
stance 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 accelera-
tor or hardware service module (usually pkcs11).
-f This option runs the server in the foreground (i.e., do not dae-
monize).
-F This options turns on FIPS (US Federal Information Processing
Standards) mode if the underlying crytographic library supports
running in FIPS mode.
-g This option runs the server in the foreground and forces all log-
ging 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 op-
tions. The possible flags are:
• fill: fill blocks of memory with tag values when they are allo-
cated or freed, to assist debugging of memory problems; this is
the implicit default if named has been compiled with --en-
able-developer.
• nofill: disable the behavior enabled by fill; this is the im-
plicit default unless named has been compiled with --enable-de-
veloper.
-m flag
This option turns on memory usage debugging flags. Possible flags
are usage, trace and record. These correspond to the ISC_MEM_DE-
BUGXXXX 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 re-
moved or changed in a future release.
-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 ch-
rooting a process running as root doesn't enhance security on most
systems; the way chroot is defined allows a process with root privi-
leges to escape a chroot jail.
-U #listeners
This option has been removed. Attempts to use it now result in a
warning.
-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 has been removed and using it will cause a fatal er-
ror.
SIGNALS
In routine operation, signals should not be used to control the name-
server; 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
]8;;https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1033.html\RFC 1033]8;;\, ]8;;https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1034.html\RFC 1034]8;;\, ]8;;https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1035.html\RFC 1035]8;;\, 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
9.20.15-1~deb13u1-Debian 2025-10-18 NAMED(8)
Generated by dwww version 1.16 on Tue Dec 16 04:19:01 CET 2025.