.\" Hey, Emacs! This is an -*- nroff -*- source file. .TH CHIARK\-NAMED\-CONF 8 "30th December 2001" "Greenend" "chiark utilities" .SH NAME chiark\-named\-conf \- check and generate nameserver configuration .SH SYNOPSIS .BR chiark\-named\-conf " [\fIoptions\fP] " \-n | \-y | \-f .br \fBchiark\-named\-conf\fP [\fIoptions\fP] \fIzone ...\fP .SH DESCRIPTION .B chiark\-named\-conf is a tool for managing nameserver configurations and checking for suspected DNS problems. Its main functions are to check that delegations are appropriate and working, and to generate a configuration for .BR BIND , from its own input file. .SH OPTIONS .SS MODE OPTIONS If one of the options .BR -n ", " -y ", or " -f is supplied then chiark-named-conf will read its main configuration file for the list of relevant zones. It will then check the configuration and delegation for each zone and/or generate and install a new configuration file for the nameserver: .TP .BR \-y | \-\-yes Generate and install new nameserver config, as well as checking configuration, for all listed zones. .TP .BR \-n | \-\-no Check configuration, for all listed zones, but do not generate new nameserver config. .TP .BR \-f | \-\-force Generate and install new nameserver config, without doing any configuration cross-checking. (Syntax errors in our input configuration will still abort this operation.) .LP Alternatively, one or more zone names may be supplied as arguments, in which case their delegations will be checked, and compared with the data for that zone in the main configuration (if any). In this case no new configuration file for the nameserver will be made. .SS ADDITIONAL OPTIONS .TP .BR \-A | \-\-all Checks even zones known to be broken. Ie, ignores the .B ? zone style modifier in the configuration. .TP \fB\-C\fP|\-\-config \fIconfig\-file\fP Use .I config\-file instead of .BR /etc/bind/chiark-conf-gen.zones . Also changes the default directory. .TP .BR \-D Enables debugging. Useful for debugging chiark\-named\-conf, but probably not useful for debugging your DNS configuration. Repeat to increase the debugging level. (Maximum is .BR -DD .) .TP .BR \-g | \-\-glueless Warn only once about a glueless referral for each zone and server, rather than once for each parent which gave out a referral without glue. When repeated, do not warn about glueless referrals at all. Not recommended. Note that glueless referrals usually cause extra delays looking up names, and can make lookups fail even if in theory they could succeed. There is no generally agreed convention or standard for avoiding circular glueless situations such as .br .B example.com NS ns0.example.net.uk .br .B example.com NS ns1.example.net.uk .br .B example.net.uk NS ns0.example.com .br .B example.net.uk NS ns1.example.com .br where gluelessness would completely prevent lookups inside example.net.uk and example.com. The best way to be sure to avoid this is to avoid gluelessness. .TP .BR \-l | \-\-local Only checks for mistakes which are the responsibility of the local administrator (to fix or get fixed). This means that for published and stealth zones we only check that we're slaving from the right place and that any names and addresses for ourself are right. For primary zones all checks are still done. It is a mistake to specify .B \-l with foreign zones (zones supplied explictly on the command line but not relevant to the local server); doing so produces a warning. .TP .BR \-q | \-\-quiet Do not print any information about zone(s) which do not have warnings. .TP .BR \-v | \-\-verbose Print additional information about each zone. .SH USAGE The file .B /etc/bind/chiark-conf-gen.zones (or other file specified with the .B \-C option) contains a sequence of directives, one per line. Blank lines are permitted. Leading and trailing whitespace on each line is ignored. Comments are lines starting with .BR # . .SS GENERAL DIRECTIVES These directives specify general configuration details. They should appear before directives specifying zones, as each will affect only later zone directives. .TP \fBself\-addr\fP \fIfqdn ...\fP Specifies the list of addresses that this server may be known by in A records. There is no default. .TP \fBself\-ns\fP \fIfqdn ...\fP Specifies the list of names that this server may be known by in NS records. There is no default. .TP \fBself\-soa\fP \fIfqdn ...\fP Specifies the list of names that this server may be known by in the ORIGIN field of SOA records. There is no default. .TP .BI self " fqdn ..." Equivalent to both .B self\-ns " and " self\-soa with the same set of names. .TP \fBslave\-dir\fP \fIdirectory\fP [[\fIprefix\fP] \fIsuffix\fP] Specifies the directory in which slave (published and stealth) zonefiles should be placed. The default .I directory is .BR /var/cache/bind/chiark-slave . The default .IR suffix " and " prefix are empty; they also will be reset to these defaults by a .B slave\-dir directive which does not specify them. .TP \fBdefault\-dir\fP \fIdirectory\fP Makes .I directory be the default directory (which affects the interpretation of relative filenames). The default is the directory containing the main configuration file, ie .BR /etc/bind if no .B -C option is specified. .TP \fBoutput\fP \fIformat\fP \fIfilename\fP [\fIformat\fP \fIfilename ...\fP] Arranges that each .I filename will be overwritten when .BR -y " or " -f are used; its new contents will be configuration directives for the zones which follow for the nameserver in question. Currently the only .I format supported is .B bind8 which indicates new-style BIND 8. If no zones follow, then each file will still be overwritten, by an effectively empty file. Default: if there is no .B output directive in the configuration then the default is to use .BR bind8 " " chiark-conf-gen.bind8 ; otherwise it is an error for there to be any zones in the configuration before the first .B output directive. .SS ZONE DIRECTIVES These directives specify one or more zones. .TP .BR primary [ * | ? "] \fIzone filename\fP" Specifies that this server is supposed to be the primary nameserver for .I zone and that the zone data is to be found in .IR filename . .TP .BR primary\-dir [ * | ? "] \fIdirectory\fP [[\fIprefix\fP] \fIsuffix\fP]" Search .I directory for files whose names match the glob pattern .IR suffix * prefix . Each such file is taken to represent a zone file for which this server is supposed to be the primary. * is the name of the zone. The default for .I suffix is .BR _db ; the default for .I prefix is empty. .TP .BR published [ * | ? "] \fIzone origin\-addr\fP" Specifies that this server is supposed to be a published slave nameserver for the zone in question. .TP .BR stealth [ * | ? "] \fIzone server\-addr ...\fP" Specifies that this server is supposed to be an unpublished secondary (aka stealth secondary) for the zone in question. .SS ZONE DIRECTIVE STYLE MODIFIERS Each of the zone directives may optionally be followed by one of the following characters: .TP .B * Indicates that the zone is unofficial, ie that it is not delegated as part of the global Internet DNS and that no attempt should be made to find the superzone and check delegations. Note that unofficial, local zones should be created with caution. They should be in parts of the namespace which are reserved for private use, or belong to the actual zone maintainer. .TP .B ? Indicates that the zone is known to be broken and no checks should be carried out on it, unless the .B \-A option is specified. .SS OTHER DIRECTIVES .TP \fBinclude\fP \fIfile\fP Reads .I file as if it were included here. .TP \fBend\fP Ends processing of this file; any data beyond this point is ignored. .SH CHECKS chiark\-named\-conf makes the following checks: Delegations: Each delegation from a server for the superzone should contain the same set of nameservers. None of the delegations should lack glue. The glue addresses should be the same in each delegation, and agree with the local default nameserver. Delegated servers: Each server mentioned in the delegation should have the same SOA record (and obviously, should be authoritative). All published nameservers - including delegated servers and servers named in the zone's nameserver set: All nameservers for the zone should supply the same list of nameservers for the zone, and none of this authority information should be glueless. All the glue should always give the same addresses. Origin server's data: The set of nameservers in the origin server's version of the zone should be a superset of those in the delegations. Our zone configuration: For .B primary zones, the SOA origin should be one of the names specified with .BR self\-soa " (or " self ). For .B published zones, the address should be that of the SOA origin. For .B stealth zones, the address should be that of the SOA origin or one of the published nameservers. .SH SECURITY chiark\-named\-conf is supposed to be resistant to malicious data in the DNS. It is not resistant to malicious data in its own options, configuration file or environment. It is not supposed to read its stdin, but is not guaranteed to be safe if stdin is dangerous. .LP Killing chiark-named-conf suddenly should be safe, even with .BR -y " or " -f (though of course it may not complete its task if killed), provided that only one invocation is made at once. .LP Slow remote nameservers will cause chiark-named-conf to take excessively long. .SH EXIT STATUS .TP .B 0 All went well and there were no warnings. .TP any other There were warnings or errors. .SH FILES .TP .B /etc/bind/chiark-conf-gen.zones Default input configuration file. (Override with .BR -C .) .TP .B /etc/bind Default directory. (Override with .BR -C " or " default\-dir .) .TP .IB dir /chiark-conf-gen.bind8 Default output file. .TP .B /var/cache/bind/chiark-slave Default location for slave zones. .SH ENVIRONMENT .LP Setting variables used by .BR dig (1) and .BR adnshost (1) will affect the operation of chiark\-named\-conf. Avoid messing with these if possible. .LP .B PATH Used to find subprograms such as .BR dig " and " adnshost . .SH BUGS The determination of the parent zone for each zone to be checked, and its nameservers, is done simply using the system default nameserver. The processing of output from .B dig is not very reliable or robust, but this is mainly the fault of dig. This can lead to somewhat unhelpful error reporting for lookup failures. .SH AUTHOR .B chiark\-named\-conf and this manpage were written by Ian Jackson .