System Administration Guide: Naming and Directory Services (DNS, NIS, and LDAP)
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BIND 9 Commands, Files, Tools, and Options

Some commands, files, tools, and options have remained the same in BIND 9 as they were in BIND 8. However, some have been modified and others have been added. This section describes many of the commands, files, tools, and options in BIND 9 and the new or modified behavior associated with each item.

BIND 9 Tools and Configuration Files

The following BIND 9.x tools are available with the Solaris operating system.

named

nsupdate

rndc

dnssec-keygen

nslookup

dig

dnssec-makekeyset

dnssec-signkey

dnssec-signzone

named-checkconf

named-checkzone

rndc-confgen

host

The following BIND 9.x configuration file is supported in Solaris 10 and Solaris Express Developer Edition releases.

/etc/rndc.conf

Comparison of BIND 8 and BIND 9 Commands and Files

The table below compares BIND 8 and BIND 9 commands and configuration files.

BIND 8 Command

BIND 9.x Replacement

dnskeygen(1M)

dnssec-keygen(1M)

ndc(1M)

rndc(1M)

named-bootconf(1M)

NONE NEEDED

nsupdate(1M)

nsupdate(1M)

nslookup(1M)

nslookup(1M)

named-xfer(1M)

NONE NEEDED

in.named(1M)

named(1M)

named.conf(4)

named.conf1

dig(1M)

dig(1M)

1A detailed named.conf man page is not included with BIND 9.2.4. The named.conf Options includes a summary of the named.conf options that are supported in BIND 9.2.4.

Descriptions of Command and Option Changes

All incompatibles listed below are BIND 8 features and interfaces that are not supported in the equivalent BIND 9 binary. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of the options, command line options, or features for any BIND 9.x binary.

Command

Option Changes

in.named(1M)

Some DNS name server in.named command line options are not supported.

In the BIND 9.x name server, the -g group_name, -q, -r and -w directory options are not supported, and -c config_file replaces the BIND 8.x -b config_file. See the named man page for further details.

dnssec-keygen(1M)

dnskeygen in BIND 8.x, used to generate keys, and dnssec-keygen from BIND 9.x, have no common options. See the dnssec-keygen man page for further details.

rndc(1M)

ndc in BIND 8.x and rndc in BIND 9.x are significantly different. They share no common options and unlike ndc, rndc needs a configuration file in /etc/rndc.conf in order to run. See man pages for rndc, rndc.conf, and rndc-confgen for further details.

nsupdate(1M)

In BIND 9.x, the syntax of the -k option changes in nsupdate. Instead of -k keydir::keyname, the syntax is now k keyfile. The only other difference is that whereas a blank line was used to signal sending the input to the server, an explicit send subcommand is now used to do the same. See the nsupdate man page for further details.

nslookup(1M)

The following options are unsupported in the 9.x version of BIND: help, host server, set ignoretc, set noignoretc, set srch[list]=N1[/N2/.../N6], set ro[ot]=host, root, finger [USER], ls [opt] DOMAIN [> FILE]

named.conf(4)

A detailed named.conf man page is not included with BIND 9.2.4. Several options are unsupported, not implemented, or have changed defaults. For a list of the option changes and a summary of all named.conf options that are supported in BIND 9.2.4, see The named.conf Options.

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