The domain information groper (dig) is the most versatile and complete of these lookup tools. It has two modes: simple interactive mode for a single query, and batch mode which executes a query for each in a list of several query lines. All query options are accessible from the command line.

The usual simple use of dig will take the form

dig @server domain query-type query-class

For more information and a list of available commands and options, see the dig man page.

The host utility emphasizes simplicity and ease of use. By default, it converts between host names and Internet addresses, but its functionality can be extended with the use of options.

For more information and a list of available commands and options, see the host man page.

nslookup has two modes: interactive and non-interactive. Interactive mode allows the user to query name servers for information about various hosts and domains or to print a list of hosts in a domain. Non-interactive mode is used to print just the name and requested information for a host or domain.

Interactive mode is entered when no arguments are given (the default name server will be used) or when the first argument is a hyphen (`-') and the second argument is the host name or Internet address of a name server.

Non-interactive mode is used when the name or Internet address of the host to be looked up is given as the first argument. The optional second argument specifies the host name or address of a name server.

Due to its arcane user interface and frequently inconsistent behavior, we do not recommend the use of nslookup. Use dig instead.

The named-checkconf program checks the syntax of a named.conf file.

The named-checkzone program checks a master file for syntax and consistency.

The remote name daemon control (rndc) program allows the system administrator to control the operation of a name server. If you run rndc without any options it will display a usage message as follows:

The command is one of the following:

In BIND 9.2, rndc supports all the commands of the BIND 8 ndc utility except ndc start and ndc restart, which were also not supported in ndc's channel mode.

A configuration file is required, since all communication with the server is authenticated with digital signatures that rely on a shared secret, and there is no way to provide that secret other than with a configuration file. The default location for the rndc configuration file is /etc/rndc.conf, but an alternate location can be specified with the -c option. If the configuration file is not found, rndc will also look in /etc/rndc.key (or whatever sysconfdir was defined when the BIND build was configured). The rndc.key file is generated by running rndc-confgen -a as described in the section called “controls Statement Definition and Usage”.

The format of the configuration file is similar to that of named.conf, but limited to only four statements, the options, key, server and include statements. These statements are what associate the secret keys to the servers with which they are meant to be shared. The order of statements is not significant.

The options statement has three clauses: default-server, default-key, and default-port. default-server takes a host name or address argument and represents the server that will be contacted if no -s option is provided on the command line. default-key takes the name of a key as its argument, as defined by a key statement. default-port specifies the port to which rndc should connect if no port is given on the command line or in a server statement.

The key statement defines a key to be used by rndc when authenticating with named. Its syntax is identical to the key statement in named.conf. The keyword key is followed by a key name, which must be a valid domain name, though it need not actually be hierarchical; thus, a string like "rndc_key" is a valid name. The key statement has two clauses: algorithm and secret. While the configuration parser will accept any string as the argument to algorithm, currently only the string "hmac-md5" has any meaning. The secret is a base-64 encoded string.

The server statement associates a key defined using the key statement with a server. The keyword server is followed by a host name or address. The server statement has two clauses: key and port. The key clause specifies the name of the key to be used when communicating with this server, and the port clause can be used to specify the port rndc should connect to on the server.

A sample minimal configuration file is as follows:

key rndc_key {
     algorithm "hmac-md5";
     secret "c3Ryb25nIGVub3VnaCBmb3IgYSBtYW4gYnV0IG1hZGUgZm9yIGEgd29tYW4K";
};
options {
     default-server 127.0.0.1;
     default-key    rndc_key;
};

This file, if installed as /etc/rndc.conf, would allow the command:

$ rndc reload

to connect to 127.0.0.1 port 953 and cause the name server to reload, if a name server on the local machine were running with following controls statements:

controls {
        inet 127.0.0.1 allow { localhost; } keys { rndc_key; };
};

and it had an identical key statement for rndc_key.

Running the rndc-confgen program will conveniently create a rndc.conf file for you, and also display the corresponding controls statement that you need to add to named.conf. Alternatively, you can run rndc-confgen -a to set up a rndc.key file and not modify named.conf at all.