  DNS HOWTO
  Nicolai Langfeldt janl@math.uio.no
  v2.0.3, 13 March 1998

  HOWTO become a totally small time DNS admin.

  1.  Preamble

  Keywords: DNS, bind, bind-4, bind-8, named, dialup, ppp, slip, isdn,
  Internet, domain, name, hosts, resolving

  1.1.  Legal stuff

  (C)opyright 1995 Nicolai Langfeldt.  Do not modify without amending
  copyright, distribute freely but retain copyright message.

  1.2.  Credits and request for help.

  I want to thank Arnt Gulbrandsen who read the drafts to this work
  countless times and provided many useful suggestions.  I also want to
  thank the people that have e-mailed suggestions and notes.

  This will never be a finished document, please send me mail about your
  problems and successes, it can make this a better HOWTO.  So please
  send money, comments and/or questions to janl@math.uio.no.  If you
  send e-mail and want an answer please show the simple courtesy of
  making sure that the return address is correct and working.  Also,
  please read the ``FAQ'' section before mailing me.

  If you want to translate this HOWTO please notify me so I can keep
  track of what languages I have been published in, and also I can
  notify you when the HOWTO has been updated.

  1.3.  Dedication

  This HOWTO is dedicated to Anne Line Norheim Langfeldt.  Though she
  will probably never read it since she's not that kind of girl.

  2.  Introduction.

  What this is and isn't.

  For starters, DNS is is the Domain Name System.  DNS converts machine
  names to the IP numbers that are all the machines addresses, it maps
  from name to address and from address to name.  This HOWTO documents
  how to define such mappings using a Linux system.  A mapping i simply
  a association between two things, in this case a machine name, like
  ftp.linux.org, and the machines IP number, 199.249.150.4.

  DNS is, to the uninitiated (you ;-), one of the more opaque areas of
  network administration.  This HOWTO will try to make a few things
  clearer.  It describes how to set up a simple DNS name server.
  Starting with a caching only server and going on to setting up a
  primary DNS server for a domain.  For more complex setups you can
  check the ``FAQ'' section of this document.  If it's not described
  there you will need to read the Real Documentation.  I'll get back to
  what this Real Documentation consists of in ``the last chapter''.

  Before you start on this you should configure your machine so that you
  can telnet in and out of it, and make successfully make all kinds of
  connections to the net, and you should especially be able to do telnet
  127.0.0.1 and get your own machine (test it now!).  You also need a
  good /etc/nsswitch.conf (or /etc/host.conf), /etc/resolv.conf and
  /etc/hosts files as a starting point, since I will not explain their
  function here.  If you don't already have all this set up and working
  the NET-3 and or the PPP-HOWTO explains how to set it up.  Read it.

  When I say `your machine' I mean the machine you are trying to set up
  DNS on.  Not any other machine you might have that's involved in your
  networking effort.

  I assume you're not behind any kind of firewall that blocks name
  queries.  If you are you will need a special configuration, see the
  section on ``FAQ''.

  Name serving on Unix is done by a program called named.  This is a
  part of the bind package which is coordinated by Paul Vixie for The
  Internet Software Consortium.  Named is included in most Linux
  distributions and is usually installed as /usr/sbin/named.  If you
  have a named you can probably use it; if you don't have one you can
  get a binary off a Linux ftp site, or get the latest and greatest
  source from ftp.isc.org:/isc/bind/src/cur/bind-8/.  This HOWTO is
  about bind version 8.  The old version of the HOWTO, about bind 4 is
  still available at http://www.math.uio.no/~janl/DNS/ in case you use
  bind 4.  If the named man page talks about named.conf you have bind 8,
  if it talks about named.boot you have bind 4.  If you have 4 and are
  security conscious you really ought to upgrade to a recent 8.

  DNS is a net-wide database.  Take care about what you put into it.  If
  you put junk into it, you, and others will get junk out of it.  Keep
  your DNS tidy and consistent and you will get good service from it.
  Learn to use it, admin it, debug it and you will be another good admin
  keeping the net from falling to it's knees overloaded by
  mismanagement.

  In this document I state flatly a couple of things that are not
  completely true (they are at least half truths though).  All in the
  interest of simplification.  Things will (probably ;-) work if you
  believe what I say.

  Tip: Make backup copies of all the files I instruct you to change if
  you already have them, so if after going through this nothing works
  you can get it back to your old, working state.

  3.  A caching only name server.

  A first stab at DNS config, very useful for dialup users.

  A caching only name server will find the answer to name queries and
  remember the answer the next time you need it.  This will shorten the
  waiting time the next time significantly, esp. if you're on a slow
  connection.

  First you need a file called /etc/named.conf.  This is read when named
  starts.  For now it should simply contain:
  ______________________________________________________________________
  // Config file for caching only name server

  options {
          directory "/var/named";

          // Uncommenting this might help if you have to go through a
          // firewall and things are not working out:

          // query-source address * port 53;
  }

  zone "." {
          type hint;
          file "root.hints";
  };

  zone "0.0.127.in-addr.arpa" {
          type master;
          file "pz/127.0.0";
  };
  ______________________________________________________________________

  The `directory' line tells named where to look for files.  All files
  named subsequently will be relative to this.  Thus pz is a directory
  under /var/named, i.e., /var/named/pz.  /var/named is the right
  directory according to the Linux File system Standard.

  The file named /var/named/root.hints is named in this.
  /var/named/root.hints should contain this:

  ______________________________________________________________________
  \&.                       6D IN NS        G.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
  \&.                       6D IN NS        J.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
  \&.                       6D IN NS        K.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
  \&.                       6D IN NS        L.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
  \&.                       6D IN NS        M.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
  \&.                       6D IN NS        A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
  \&.                       6D IN NS        H.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
  \&.                       6D IN NS        B.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
  \&.                       6D IN NS        C.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
  \&.                       6D IN NS        D.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
  \&.                       6D IN NS        E.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
  \&.                       6D IN NS        I.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
  \&.                       6D IN NS        F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.

  G.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.     5w6d16h IN A    192.112.36.4
  J.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.     5w6d16h IN A    198.41.0.10
  K.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.     5w6d16h IN A    193.0.14.129
  L.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.     5w6d16h IN A    198.32.64.12
  M.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.     5w6d16h IN A    202.12.27.33
  A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.     5w6d16h IN A    198.41.0.4
  H.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.     5w6d16h IN A    128.63.2.53
  B.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.     5w6d16h IN A    128.9.0.107
  C.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.     5w6d16h IN A    192.33.4.12
  D.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.     5w6d16h IN A    128.8.10.90
  E.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.     5w6d16h IN A    192.203.230.10
  I.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.     5w6d16h IN A    192.36.148.17
  F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.     5w6d16h IN A    192.5.5.241
  ______________________________________________________________________

  VERY IMPORTANT: In some versions of this document the file contents
  listed here will have a couple of spaces or a tab before the first non
  blank character. These are not supposed to be in the file.  Delete any
  leading space in the files you cut and paste from this HOWTO.

  Remember what I said about leading spaces!

  The file describes the root name servers in the world.  This changes
  over time and must be maintained.  See the ``maintenance section'' for
  how to keep it up to date.

  The next line in named.conf is the primary line.  I will explain its
  use in a later chapter, for now just make this a file named 127.0.0 in
  the subdirectory pz:

  ______________________________________________________________________
  @               IN      SOA     linux.bogus. hostmaster.linux.bogus. (
                                  1       ; Serial
                                  8H      ; Refresh
                                  2H      ; Retry
                                  1W      ; Expire
                                  1D)     ; Minimum TTL
                          NS      ns.linux.bogus.
  1                       PTR     localhost.
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Next, you need a /etc/resolv.conf looking something like this:

  ______________________________________________________________________
  search subdomain.your-domain.edu your-domain.edu
  nameserver 127.0.0.1
  ______________________________________________________________________

  The `search' line specifies what domains should be searched for any
  host names you want to connect to.  The `nameserver' line specifies
  the address of your nameserver at, in this case your own machine since
  that is where your named runs (127.0.0.1 is right, no matter if your
  machine has an other address too).  If you want to list several name
  servers put in one `nameserver' line for each. (Note: Named never
  reads this file, the resolver that uses named does.)

  To illustrate what this file does: If a client tries to look up foo,
  then foo.subdomain.your-domain.edu is tried first, then foo.your-
  fomain.edu, finally foo.  If a client tries to look up
  sunsite.unc.edu, sunsite.unc.edu.subdomain.your-domain.edu is tried
  first (yes, it's silly, but that's the way it works) , then
  sunsite.unc.edu.your-domain.edu, and finally sunsite.unc.edu.  You may
  not want to put in too many domains in the search line, it takes time
  to search them all.

  The example assumes you belong in the domain subdomain.your-
  domain.edu, your machine then, is probably called your-
  machine.subdomain.your-domain.edu.  The search line should not contain
  your TLD (Top Level Domain, `edu' in this case).  If you frequently
  need to connect to hosts in another domain you can add that domain to
  the search line like this:

  ______________________________________________________________________
  search subdomain.your-domain.edu your-domain.edu other-domain.com
  ______________________________________________________________________

  and so on. Obviously you need to put real domain names in instead.
  Please note the lack of periods at the end of the domain names.

  Next, depending on your libc version you either need to fix
  /etc/nsswitch.conf or /etc/host.conf.  If you already have
  nsswitch.conf that's what we'll fix, if not, we'll fix host.conf.

  /etc/nsswitch.conf

  This is a long file specifying where to get different kinds of data
  types, from what file or database.  It usually contains helpful
  comments at the top, which you should consider reading, now.  After
  that find the line starting with `hosts:', it should read

  ______________________________________________________________________
  hosts:      files dns
  ______________________________________________________________________

  If there is no line starting with `hosts:' then put in the one above.
  It says that programs should first look in the /etc/hosts file, then
  check DNS according to resolv.conf.

  /etc/host.conf

  It probably contains several lines, one should starting with order and
  it should look like this:

  ______________________________________________________________________
  order hosts,bind
  ______________________________________________________________________

  If there is no `order' line you should stick one in.  It tells the
  host name resolving routines to first look in /etc/hosts, then ask the
  name server (which you in resolv.conf said is at 127.0.0.1) These two
  latest files are documented in the resolv(8) man page (do `man 8
  resolv') in most Linux distributions.  That man page is IMHO readable,
  and everyone, especially DNS admins, should read it.  Do it now, if
  you say to yourself "I'll do it later" you'll never get around to it.

  3.1.  Starting named

  After all this it's time to start named.  If you're using a dialup
  connection connect first.  Type `ndc start', and press return, no
  options.  If that back-fires try `/usr/sbin/ndc start' instead.  If
  that back-fires see the ``FAQ'' section.  Now you can test your setup.
  If you view your syslog message file (usually called
  /var/adm/messages, but another directory to look in is /var/log and
  another file to look in is syslog) while starting named (do tail -f
  /var/log/messages) you should see something like:

  (the lines ending in  continues on the next line)

       Feb 15 01:26:17 roke named[6091]: starting.  named 8.1.1 Sat Feb 14 \
         00:18:20 MET 1998 ^Ijanl@roke.uio.no:/var/tmp/bind-8.1.1/src/bin/named
       Feb 15 01:26:17 roke named[6091]: cache zone "" (IN) loaded (serial 0)
       Feb 15 01:26:17 roke named[6091]: master zone "0.0.127.in-addr.arpa" \
         (IN) loaded (serial 1)
       Feb 15 01:26:17 roke named[6091]: listening [127.0.0.1].53 (lo)
       Feb 15 01:26:17 roke named[6091]: listening [129.240.230.92].53 (ippp0)
       Feb 15 01:26:17 roke named[6091]: Forwarding source address is [0.0.0.0].1040
       Feb 15 01:26:17 roke named[6092]: Ready to answer queries.

  If there are any messages about errors then there is a mistake.  Named
  will name the file it is in (one of named.conf and root.hints I hope
  :-) Kill named and go back and check the file.

  Now it's time to start nslookup to examine your handy-work.

       $ nslookup
       Default Server:  localhost
       Address:  127.0.0.1

       >

  If that's what you get it's working.  We hope.  Anything else, go back
  and check everything.  Each time you change the named.conf file you
  need to restart named using the ndc restart command.

  Now you can enter a query.  Try looking up some machine close to you.
  pat.uio.no is close to me, at the University of Oslo:

       > pat.uio.no
       Server:  localhost
       Address:  127.0.0.1

       Name:    pat.uio.no
       Address:  129.240.130.16

  nslookup now asked your named to look for the machine pat.uio.no.  It
  then contacted one of the name server machines named in your
  root.hints file, and asked its way from there.  It might take tiny
  while before you get the result as it searches all the domains you
  named in /etc/resolv.conf.

  If you ask the same again you get this:

       > pat.uio.no
       Server:  localhost
       Address:  127.0.0.1

       Non-authoritative answer:
       Name:    pat.uio.no
       Address:  129.240.2.50

  Note the `Non-authoritative answer:' line we got this time around.
  That means that named did not go out on the network to ask this time,
  it instead looked in it's cache and found it there.  But the cached
  information might be out of date (stale).  So you are informed of this
  (very slight) danger by it saying `Non-authorative answer:'.  When
  nslookup says this the second time you ask for a host it's a sure sign
  that named caches the information and that it's working.  You exit
  nslookup by giving the command `exit'.

  Now you know how to set up a caching named.  Take a beer, milk, or
  whatever you prefer to celebrate it.

  4.  A simple domain.

  How to set up your own domain.

  4.1.  But first some dry theory

  Before we really start this section I'm going to serve you some theory
  on how DNS works.  And you're going to read it because it's good for
  you.  If you don't `wanna' you should at least skim it very quickly.
  Stop skimming when you get to what should go in your named.conf file.

  DNS is a hierarchical system.  The top is written `.' and pronounced
  `root'.  Under . there are a number of Top Level Domains (TLDs), the
  best known ones are ORG, COM, EDU and NET, but there are many more.

  When looking for a machine the query proceeds recursively into the
  hierarchy starting at the top.  If you want to find out the address of
  prep.ai.mit.edu your name server has to find a name server that serves
  edu.  It asks a . server (it already knows the .  servers, that's what
  the root.hints file is for), the .  server gives a list of edu
  servers:

  $ nslookup
  Default Server:  localhost
  Address:  127.0.0.1

  Start asking a root server:

       > server c.root-servers.net.
       Default Server:  c.root-servers.net
       Address:  192.33.4.12

  Set the Query type to NS (name server records):

       > set q=ns

  Ask about edu:

       > edu.

  The trailing . here is significant, it tells the server we're asking
  that edu is right under . (this narrows the search somewhat).

       edu     nameserver = A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET
       edu     nameserver = H.ROOT-SERVERS.NET
       edu     nameserver = B.ROOT-SERVERS.NET
       edu     nameserver = C.ROOT-SERVERS.NET
       edu     nameserver = D.ROOT-SERVERS.NET
       edu     nameserver = E.ROOT-SERVERS.NET
       edu     nameserver = I.ROOT-SERVERS.NET
       edu     nameserver = F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET
       edu     nameserver = G.ROOT-SERVERS.NET
       A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET      internet address = 198.41.0.4
       H.ROOT-SERVERS.NET      internet address = 128.63.2.53
       B.ROOT-SERVERS.NET      internet address = 128.9.0.107
       C.ROOT-SERVERS.NET      internet address = 192.33.4.12
       D.ROOT-SERVERS.NET      internet address = 128.8.10.90
       E.ROOT-SERVERS.NET      internet address = 192.203.230.10
       I.ROOT-SERVERS.NET      internet address = 192.36.148.17
       F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET      internet address = 192.5.5.241
       G.ROOT-SERVERS.NET      internet address = 192.112.36.4

  This tells us that *.root-servers.net serves edu., so we can go on
  asking c.  Now we want to know who serves the next level of the domain
  name: mit.edu.:

       > mit.edu.
       Server:  c.root-servers.net
       Address:  192.33.4.12

       Non-authoritative answer:
       mit.edu nameserver = W20NS.mit.edu
       mit.edu nameserver = BITSY.mit.edu
       mit.edu nameserver = STRAWB.mit.edu

       Authoritative answers can be found from:
       W20NS.mit.edu   internet address = 18.70.0.160
       BITSY.mit.edu   internet address = 18.72.0.3
       STRAWB.mit.edu  internet address = 18.71.0.151

  steawb, w20ns and bitsy serves mit, select one and inquire about
  ai.mit.edu:

       > server W20NS.mit.edu.

  Host names are not case sensitive, but I use my mouse to cut and paste
  so it gets copied as-is from the screen.

  Server:  W20NS.mit.edu
  Address:  18.70.0.160

  > ai.mit.edu.
  Server:  W20NS.mit.edu
  Address:  18.70.0.160

  Non-authoritative answer:
  ai.mit.edu      nameserver = ALPHA-BITS.AI.MIT.EDU
  ai.mit.edu      nameserver = GRAPE-NUTS.AI.MIT.EDU
  ai.mit.edu      nameserver = TRIX.AI.MIT.EDU
  ai.mit.edu      nameserver = MUESLI.AI.MIT.EDU
  ai.mit.edu      nameserver = LIFE.AI.MIT.EDU
  ai.mit.edu      nameserver = BEET-CHEX.AI.MIT.EDU
  ai.mit.edu      nameserver = MINI-WHEATS.AI.MIT.EDU
  ai.mit.edu      nameserver = COUNT-CHOCULA.AI.MIT.EDU
  ai.mit.edu      nameserver = MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU

  Authoritative answers can be found from:
  AI.MIT.EDU      nameserver = ALPHA-BITS.AI.MIT.EDU
  AI.MIT.EDU      nameserver = GRAPE-NUTS.AI.MIT.EDU
  AI.MIT.EDU      nameserver = TRIX.AI.MIT.EDU
  AI.MIT.EDU      nameserver = MUESLI.AI.MIT.EDU
  AI.MIT.EDU      nameserver = LIFE.AI.MIT.EDU
  AI.MIT.EDU      nameserver = BEET-CHEX.AI.MIT.EDU
  AI.MIT.EDU      nameserver = MINI-WHEATS.AI.MIT.EDU
  AI.MIT.EDU      nameserver = COUNT-CHOCULA.AI.MIT.EDU
  AI.MIT.EDU      nameserver = MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU
  ALPHA-BITS.AI.MIT.EDU   internet address = 128.52.32.5
  GRAPE-NUTS.AI.MIT.EDU   internet address = 128.52.36.4
  TRIX.AI.MIT.EDU internet address = 128.52.37.6
  MUESLI.AI.MIT.EDU       internet address = 128.52.39.7
  LIFE.AI.MIT.EDU internet address = 128.52.32.80
  BEET-CHEX.AI.MIT.EDU    internet address = 128.52.32.22
  MINI-WHEATS.AI.MIT.EDU  internet address = 128.52.54.11
  COUNT-CHOCULA.AI.MIT.EDU        internet address = 128.52.38.22
  MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU     internet address = 18.26.0.36

  So museli.ai.mit.edu is a nameserver for ai.mit.edu:

       > server MUESLI.AI.MIT.EDU
       Default Server:  MUESLI.AI.MIT.EDU
       Address:  128.52.39.7

  Now I change query type, we've found the name server so now we're
  going to ask about everything wheaties knows about prep.ai.mit.edu.

  > set q=any
  > prep.ai.mit.edu.
  Server:  MUESLI.AI.MIT.EDU
  Address:  128.52.39.7

  prep.ai.mit.edu CPU = dec/decstation-5000.25    OS = unix
  prep.ai.mit.edu
          inet address = 18.159.0.42, protocol = tcp
            ftp  telnet  smtp  finger
  prep.ai.mit.edu preference = 1, mail exchanger = gnu-life.ai.mit.edu
  prep.ai.mit.edu internet address = 18.159.0.42
  ai.mit.edu      nameserver = beet-chex.ai.mit.edu
  ai.mit.edu      nameserver = alpha-bits.ai.mit.edu
  ai.mit.edu      nameserver = mini-wheats.ai.mit.edu
  ai.mit.edu      nameserver = trix.ai.mit.edu
  ai.mit.edu      nameserver = muesli.ai.mit.edu
  ai.mit.edu      nameserver = count-chocula.ai.mit.edu
  ai.mit.edu      nameserver = mintaka.lcs.mit.edu
  ai.mit.edu      nameserver = life.ai.mit.edu
  gnu-life.ai.mit.edu     internet address = 128.52.32.60
  beet-chex.ai.mit.edu    internet address = 128.52.32.22
  alpha-bits.ai.mit.edu   internet address = 128.52.32.5
  mini-wheats.ai.mit.edu  internet address = 128.52.54.11
  trix.ai.mit.edu internet address = 128.52.37.6
  muesli.ai.mit.edu       internet address = 128.52.39.7
  count-chocula.ai.mit.edu        internet address = 128.52.38.22
  mintaka.lcs.mit.edu     internet address = 18.26.0.36
  life.ai.mit.edu internet address = 128.52.32.80

  So starting at . we found the successive name servers for the next
  level in the domain name.  If you had used your own DNS server instead
  of using all those other servers, your named would of-course cache all
  the information it found while digging this out for you, and it would
  not have to ask again for a while.

  A much less talked about, but just as important domain is in-
  addr.arpa.  It too is nested like the `normal' domains.  in-addr.arpa
  allows us to get the hosts name when we have it's address.  A
  important thing here is to note that ip#s are written in reverse order
  in the in-addr.arpa domain.  If you have the address of a machine:
  192.128.52.43 named proceeds just like for the prep.ai.mit.edu
  example: find arpa. servers.  Find in-addr.arpa. servers, find 192.in-
  addr.arpa. servers, find 128.192.in-addr.arpa. servers, find
  52.128.192.in-addr.arpa.  servers.  Find needed records for
  43.52.128.192.in-addr.arpa.  Clever huh? (Say `yes'.)  The reversion
  of the numbers can be confusing the first 2 years though.

  I have just told a lie.  DNS does not work literally the way I just
  told you.  But it's close enough.

  4.2.  Our own domain

  Now to define our own domain.  We're going to make the domain
  linux.bogus and define machines in it.  I use a totally bogus domain
  name to make sure we disturb no-one Out There.

  One more thing before we start: Not all characters are allowed in
  host-names.  We're restricted to the characters of the English
  alphabet: a-z, and numbers: 0-9 and the character '-' (dash).  Keep to
  those characters.  Upper and lower-case characters are the same for
  DNS, so pat.uio.no is identical to Pat.UiO.No.

  We've already started this part with this line in named.conf:

  ______________________________________________________________________
  zone "0.0.127.in-addr.arpa" {
          type master;
          file "pz/127.0.0";
  };
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Please note the lack of `.' at the end of the domain names in this
  file.  This says that now we will define the zone 0.0.127.in-
  addr.arpa, that we're the master server for it and that it is stored
  in a file called pz/127.0.0.  We've already set up this file, it
  reads:

  ______________________________________________________________________
  @               IN      SOA     ns.linux.bogus. hostmaster.linux.bogus. (
                                  1       ; Serial
                                  8H      ; Refresh
                                  2H      ; Retry
                                  1W      ; Expire
                                  1D)     ; Minimum TTL
                          NS      ns.linux.bogus.
  1                       PTR     localhost.
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Please note the `.' at the end of all the full domain names in this
  file, in contrast to the named.conf file above.  Some people like to
  start each zone file with a $ORIGIN directive, but this is
  superfluous.  The origin (where in the DNS hierarchy it belongs) of a
  zone file is specified on the zone line in the named.conf file, in
  this case it's 0.0.127.in-addr.arpa.

  This `zone file' contains 3 `resource records' (RRs): A SOA RR.  A NS
  RR and a PTR RR.  SOA is short for Start Of Authority.  The `@' is a
  special notation meaning the origin, and since the `domain' column for
  this file says 0.0.127.in-addr.arpa the first line really means

       0.0.127.in-addr.arpa.   IN      SOA ...

  NS is the Name Server RR.  There is no '@' at the start of this line,
  it is implicit since the last line started with a '@'.  Saves some
  typing that.  So the NS line really reads

  0.0.127.in-addr.arpa.   IN      NS      ns.linux.bogus

  It tells DNS what machine is the name server of the domain 0.0.127.in-
  addr.arpa, it is ns.linux.bogus.  'ns' is a customary name for name-
  servers, but as with web servers who are customarily named
  www.something the name may be anything.

  And finally the PTR record says that the host at address 1 in the
  subnet 0.0.127.in-addr.arpa, i.e., 127.0.0,1 is named localhost.

  The SOA record is the preamble to all zone files, and there should be
  exactly one in each zone file, the very first record.  It describes
  the zone, where it comes from (a machine called ns.linux.bogus), who
  is responsible for its contents (hostmaster@linux.bogus), what version
  of the zone file this is (serial: 1), and other things having to do
  with caching and secondary DNS servers.  For the rest of the fields,
  refresh, retry, expire and minimum use the numbers used in this HOWTO
  and you should be safe.

  Now restart your named (the command is ndc restart) and use nslookup
  to examine what you've done:

       $ nslookup

       Default Server:  localhost
       Address:  127.0.0.1

       > 127.0.0.1
       Server:  localhost
       Address:  127.0.0.1

       Name:    localhost
       Address:  127.0.0.1

  so it manages to get localhost from 127.0.0.1, good.  Now for our main
  task, the linux.bogus domain, insert a new 'zone' section in
  named.conf:

  ______________________________________________________________________
  zone "linux.bogus" {
          notify no;
          type master;
          file "pz/linux.bogus";
  };
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Note the continued lack of ending `.' on the domain name in the
  named.conf file.

  In the linux.bogus zone file we'll put some totally bogus data:

  ______________________________________________________________________
  ;
  ; Zone file for linux.bogus
  ;
  ; The full zone file
  ;
  @       IN      SOA     ns.linux.bogus. hostmaster.linux.bogus. (
                          199802151       ; serial, todays date + todays serial #
                          8H              ; refresh, seconds
                          2H              ; retry, seconds
                          1W              ; expire, seconds
                          1D )            ; minimum, seconds
  ;
                  NS      ns              ; Inet Address of name server
                  MX      10 mail.linux.bogus     ; Primary Mail Exchanger
                  MX      20 mail.friend.bogus.   ; Secondary Mail Exchanger
  ;
  localhost       A       127.0.0.1
  ns              A       192.168.196.2
  mail            A       192.168.196.4
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Two things must be noted about the SOA record.  ns.linux.bogus must be
  a actual machine with a A record.  It is not legal to have a CNAME
  record for he machine mentioned in the SOA record.  It's name need not
  be `ns', it could be any legal host name.  Next,
  hostmaster.linux.bogus should be read as hostmaster@linux.bogus, this
  should be a mail alias, or a mailbox, where the person(s) maintaining
  DNS should read mail frequently.  Any mail regarding the domain will
  be sent to the address listed here.  The name need not be
  `hostmaster', it can be any legal e-mail address, but the e-mail
  address `hostmaster' is expected to work as well.

  There is one new RR type in this file, the MX, or Mail eXchanger RR.
  It tells mail systems where to send mail that is addressed to
  someone@linux.bogus, namely too mail.linux.bogus or mail.friend.bogus.
  The number before each machine name is that MX RRs priority.  The RR
  with the lowest number (10) is the one mail should be sent to
  primarily.  If that fails it can be sent to one with a higher number,
  a secondary mail handler, i.e., mail.friend.bogus which has priority
  20 here.

  Restart named by running ndc restart.  Examine the results with
  nslookup:

  $ nslookup
  > set q=any
  > linux.bogus
  Server:  localhost
  Address:  127.0.0.1

  linux.bogus
          origin = ns.linux.bogus
          mail addr = hostmaster.linux.bogus
          serial = 199802151
          refresh = 28800 (8 hours)
          retry   = 7200 (2 hours)
          expire  = 604800 (7 days)
          minimum ttl = 86400 (1 day)
  linux.bogus     nameserver = ns.linux.bogus
  linux.bogus     preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail.linux.bogus.linux.bogus
  linux.bogus     preference = 20, mail exchanger = mail.friend.bogus
  linux.bogus     nameserver = ns.linux.bogus
  ns.linux.bogus  internet address = 192.168.196.2
  mail.linux.bogus        internet address = 192.168.196.4

  Upon careful examination you will discover a bug.  The line

       linux.bogus     preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail.linux.bogus.linux.bogus

  is all wrong.  It should be

       linux.bogus     preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail.linux.bogus

  I deliberately made a mistake so you could learn from it :-) Looking
  in the zone file we find that the line

                       MX      10 mail.linux.bogus     ; Primary Mail Exchanger

  is missing a period.  Or has a 'linux.bogus' too many.  If a machine
  name does not end in a period in a zone file the origin is added to
  its end causing the double linux.bogus.linux.bogus.  So either

  ______________________________________________________________________
                  MX      10 mail.linux.bogus.    ; Primary Mail Exchanger
  ______________________________________________________________________

  or

  ______________________________________________________________________
                  MX      10 mail                 ; Primary Mail Exchanger
  ______________________________________________________________________

  is correct.  I prefer the latter form, it's less to type.  There are
  some, knowledgable, bind users that disagree, and some that agree with
  this.  In a zone file the domain should either be written out and
  ended with a `.' or it should not be included at all, in which case it
  defaults to the origin.

  I must stress that in the named.conf file there should not be `.'s
  after the domain names.  You have no idea how many times a `.' too
  many or few have fouled up things and confused the h*ll out of people.

  So having made my point here is the new zone file, with some extra
  information in it as well:

  ______________________________________________________________________
  ;
  ; Zone file for linux.bogus
  ;
  ; The full zone file
  ;
  @       IN      SOA     ns.linux.bogus. hostmaster.linux.bogus. (
                          199802151       ; serial, todays date + todays serial #
                          8H              ; refresh, seconds
                          2H              ; retry, seconds
                          1W              ; expire, seconds
                          1D )            ; minimum, seconds
  ;
                  TXT     "Linux.Bogus, your DNS consultants"
                  NS      ns              ; Inet Address of name server
                  NS      ns.friend.bogus.
                  MX      10 mail         ; Primary Mail Exchanger
                  MX      20 mail.friend.bogus. ; Secondary Mail Exchanger

  localhost       A       127.0.0.1

  gw              A       192.168.196.1
                  HINFO   "Cisco" "IOS"
                  TXT     "The router"

  ns              A       192.168.196.2
                  MX      10 mail
                  MX      20 mail.friend.bogus.
                  HINFO   "Pentium" "Linux 2.0"
  www             CNAME   ns

  donald          A       192.168.196.3
                  MX      10 mail
                  MX      20 mail.friend.bogus.
                  HINFO   "i486"  "Linux 2.0"
                  TXT     "DEK"

  mail            A       192.168.196.4
                  MX      10 mail
                  MX      20 mail.friend.bogus.
                  HINFO   "386sx" "Linux 1.2"

  ftp             A       192.168.196.5
                  MX      10 mail
                  MX      20 mail.friend.bogus.
                  HINFO   "P6" "Linux 2.1.86"
  ______________________________________________________________________

  There are a number of new RRs here: HINFO (Host INFOrmation) has two
  parts, it's a good habit to quote each.  The first part is the
  hardware or CPU on the machine, and the second part the software or OS
  on the machine.  The machine called 'ns' has a Pentium CPU and runs
  Linux 2.0.  CNAME (Canonical NAME) is a way to give each machine
  several names.  So www is an alias for ns.

  CNAME record usage is a bit controversial.  But it's safe to follow
  the rule that a MX, CNAME or SOA record should never refer to a CNAME
  record, they should only refer to something with a A record, so it
  would wrong to have

  ______________________________________________________________________
  foobar          CNAME   www                     ; NO!
  ______________________________________________________________________

  but correct to have

  ______________________________________________________________________
  foobar          CNAME   ns                      ; Yes!
  ______________________________________________________________________

  It's also safe to assume that a CNAME is not a legal host name for a
  e-mail address: webmaster@www.linux.bogus is an ilegal e-mail address
  given the setup above.  You can expect quite a few mail admins Out
  There to enforce this rule even if it works for you.  The way to avoid
  this is to use A records (and perhaps some others too, like a MX
  record) instead:

  ______________________________________________________________________
  www             A       192.168.196.2
  ______________________________________________________________________

  A number of the arch-bind-wizards, recommends not using CNAME.  So
  consider not using it very seriously.

  But as you see, this HOWTO and many sites does not follow this rule.

  Load the new database by running ndc reload, this causes named to read
  its files again.

       $ nslookup
       Default Server:  localhost
       Address:  127.0.0.1

       > ls -d linux.bogus

  This means that all records should be listed.  It results in this:

  [localhost]
  $ORIGIN linux.bogus.
  @                       1D IN SOA       ns hostmaster (
                                          199802151       ; serial
                                          8H              ; refresh
                                          2H              ; retry
                                          1W              ; expiry
                                          1D )            ; minimum

                          1D IN NS        ns
                          1D IN NS        ns.friend.bogus.
                          1D IN TXT       "Linux.Bogus, your DNS consultants"
                          1D IN MX        10 mail
                          1D IN MX        20 mail.friend.bogus.
  gw                      1D IN A         192.168.196.1
                          1D IN HINFO     "Cisco" "IOS"
                          1D IN TXT       "The router"
  mail                    1D IN A         192.168.196.4
                          1D IN MX        10 mail
                          1D IN MX        20 mail.friend.bogus.
                          1D IN HINFO     "386sx" "Linux 1.0.9"
  localhost               1D IN A         127.0.0.1
  www                     1D IN CNAME     ns
  donald                  1D IN A         192.168.196.3
                          1D IN MX        10 mail
                          1D IN MX        20 mail.friend.bogus.
                          1D IN HINFO     "i486" "Linux 1.2"
                          1D IN TXT       "DEK"
  ftp                     1D IN A         192.168.196.5
                          1D IN MX        10 mail
                          1D IN MX        20 mail.friend.bogus.
                          1D IN HINFO     "P6" "Linux 1.3.59"
  ns                      1D IN A         192.168.196.2
                          1D IN MX        10 mail
                          1D IN MX        20 mail.friend.bogus.
                          1D IN HINFO     "Pentium" "Linux 1.2"
  @                       1D IN SOA       ns hostmaster (
                                          199802151       ; serial
                                          8H              ; refresh
                                          2H              ; retry
                                          1W              ; expiry
                                          1D )            ; minimum

  That's good.  As you see it looks a lot like the zone file itself.
  Let's check what it says for www alone:

       > set q=any
       > www.linux.bogus.
       Server:  localhost
       Address:  127.0.0.1

       www.linux.bogus canonical name = ns.linux.bogus
       linux.bogus     nameserver = ns.linux.bogus
       linux.bogus     nameserver = ns.friend.bogus
       ns.linux.bogus  internet address = 192.168.196.2

  In other words, the real name of www.linux.bogus is ns.linux.bogus,
  and it gives you some of the information it has about ns as well,
  enough to connect to it if you were a program.

  Now we're halfway.

  4.3.  The reverse zone

  Now programs can convert the names in linux.bogus to addresses which
  they can connect to.  But also required is a reverse zone, one making
  DNS able to convert from an address to a name.  This name is used buy
  a lot of servers of different kinds (FTP, IRC, WWW and others) to
  decide if they want to talk to you or not, and if so, maybe even how
  much priority you should be given.  For full access to all services on
  the Internet a reverse zone is required.

  Put this in named.conf:

  ______________________________________________________________________
  zone "196.168.192.in-addr.arpa" {
          notify no;
          type master;
          file "pz/192.168.196";
  };
  ______________________________________________________________________

  This is exactly as with the 0.0.127.in-addr.arpa, and the contents are
  similar:

  ______________________________________________________________________
  @       IN      SOA     ns.linux.bogus. hostmaster.linux.bogus. (
                          199802151 ; Serial, todays date + todays serial
                          8H      ; Refresh
                          2H      ; Retry
                          1W      ; Expire
                          1D)     ; Minimum TTL
                  NS      ns.linux.bogus.

  1               PTR     gw.linux.bogus.
  2               PTR     ns.linux.bogus.
  3               PTR     donald.linux.bogus.
  4               PTR     mail.linux.bogus.
  5               PTR     donald.linux.bogus.
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Now you restart your named (ndc restart) and examine your work with
  nslookup again:

  ______________________________________________________________________
  > 192.168.196.4
  Server:  localhost
  Address:  127.0.0.1

  Name:    mail.linux.bogus
  Address:  192.168.196.4
  ______________________________________________________________________

  so, it looks OK, dump the whole thing to examine that too:

  ______________________________________________________________________
  > ls -d 196.168.192.in-addr.arpa
  [localhost]
  $ORIGIN 196.168.192.in-addr.arpa.
  @                       1D IN SOA       ns.linux.bogus. hostmaster.linux.bogus. (
                                          199802151       ; serial
                                          8H              ; refresh
                                          2H              ; retry
                                          1W              ; expiry
                                          1D )            ; minimum

                          1D IN NS        ns.linux.bogus.
  1                       1D IN PTR       gw.linux.bogus.
  2                       1D IN PTR       ns.linux.bogus.
  3                       1D IN PTR       donald.linux.bogus.
  4                       1D IN PTR       mail.linux.bogus.
  5                       1D IN PTR       donald.linux.bogus.
  @                       1D IN SOA       ns.linux.bogus. hostmaster.linux.bogus. (
                                          199802151       ; serial
                                          8H              ; refresh
                                          2H              ; retry
                                          1W              ; expiry
                                          1D )            ; minimum
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Looks good!

  There are some things I should add here.  The IP numbers used in the
  examples above are taken from one of the blocks of 'private nets',
  i.e., they are not allowed to be used publicly on the internet.  So
  they are safe to use in an example in a HOWTO.  The second thing is
  the notify no; line.  It tells named not to notify its secondary
  (slave) servers when it has gotten a update to one of its zone files.
  In bind-8 the named can notify the other servers listed in NS records
  in the zone file when a zone is updated.  This is handy for ordinary
  use, but for private experiments with zones this feature should be
  off, we don't want the experiment to pollute the internet do we?

  And, of course, this domain is highly bogus, and so are all the
  addresses in it.  For a real example of a real-life domain see the
  next section.

  5.  A real domain example

  Where we list some real zone files

  Users have suggested that I include a real example of a working domain
  as well as the tutorial example.

  I use this example with permission from David Bullock of LAND-5.
  These files were current 24th of September 1996, and were then edited
  to fit bind-8 restrictions and use extensions by me.  So, what you see
  here differs a bit from what you find if you query LAND-5's name
  servers now.

  5.1.  /etc/named.conf (or /var/named/named.conf)

  Here we find primary lines for the two reverse zones needed: the
  127.0.0 net, as well as LAND-5's 206.6.177 subnet.  And a primary line
  for land-5's forward zone land-5.com.  Also note that instead of
  stuffing the files in a directory called pz, as I do in this HOWTO, he
  puts them in a directory called zone.

  ______________________________________________________________________
  // Boot file for LAND-5 name server

  options {
          directory "/var/named";
  };

  zone "." {
          type hint;
          file "root.hints";
  };

  zone "0.0.127.in-addr.arpa" {
          type master;
          file "zone/127.0.0";
  };

  zone "land-5.com" {
          type master;
          file "zone/land-5.com";
  };

  zone "177.6.206.in-addr.arpa" {
          type master;
          file "zone/206.6.177";
  };
  ______________________________________________________________________

  If you put this in your named.conf file to play with PLEASE put notify
  no; in the zone sections for the two land-5 zones so as to avoid
  accidents.

  5.2.  /var/named/root.hints

  Keep in mind that this file is dynamic, and the one listed here is
  old.  You're better off using one produced now, with dig , as
  explained earlier.
  ______________________________________________________________________
  ; <<>> DiG 8.1 <<>> @A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
  ; (1 server found)
  ;; res options: init recurs defnam dnsrch
  ;; got answer:
  ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 10
  ;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 13, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 13
  ;; QUERY SECTION:
  ;;      ., type = NS, class = IN

  ;; ANSWER SECTION:
  \&.                       6D IN NS        G.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
  \&.                       6D IN NS        J.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
  \&.                       6D IN NS        K.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
  \&.                       6D IN NS        L.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
  \&.                       6D IN NS        M.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
  \&.                       6D IN NS        A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
  \&.                       6D IN NS        H.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
  \&.                       6D IN NS        B.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
  \&.                       6D IN NS        C.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
  \&.                       6D IN NS        D.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
  \&.                       6D IN NS        E.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
  \&.                       6D IN NS        I.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
  \&.                       6D IN NS        F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.

  ;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
  G.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.     5w6d16h IN A    192.112.36.4
  J.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.     5w6d16h IN A    198.41.0.10
  K.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.     5w6d16h IN A    193.0.14.129
  L.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.     5w6d16h IN A    198.32.64.12
  M.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.     5w6d16h IN A    202.12.27.33
  A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.     5w6d16h IN A    198.41.0.4
  H.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.     5w6d16h IN A    128.63.2.53
  B.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.     5w6d16h IN A    128.9.0.107
  C.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.     5w6d16h IN A    192.33.4.12
  D.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.     5w6d16h IN A    128.8.10.90
  E.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.     5w6d16h IN A    192.203.230.10
  I.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.     5w6d16h IN A    192.36.148.17
  F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.     5w6d16h IN A    192.5.5.241

  ;; Total query time: 215 msec
  ;; FROM: roke.uio.no to SERVER: A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.  198.41.0.4
  ;; WHEN: Sun Feb 15 01:22:51 1998
  ;; MSG SIZE  sent: 17  rcvd: 436
  ______________________________________________________________________

  5.3.  /var/named/zone/127.0.0

  Just the basics, the obligatory SOA record, and a record that maps
  127.0.0.1 to localhost.  Both are required.  No more should be in this
  file.  It will probably never need to be updated, unless your
  nameserver or hostmaster address changes.

  ______________________________________________________________________
  @               IN      SOA     land-5.com. root.land-5.com. (
                                  199609203       ; Serial
                                  28800   ; Refresh
                                  7200    ; Retry
                                  604800  ; Expire
                                  86400)  ; Minimum TTL
                          NS      land-5.com.

  1                       PTR     localhost.
  ______________________________________________________________________

  5.4.  /var/named/zone/land-5.com

  Here we see the mandatory SOA record, the needed NS records.  We can
  see that he has a secondary name server at ns2.psi.net.  This is as it
  should be, always have a off site secondary server as backup.  We can
  also see that he has a master host called land-5 which takes care of
  many of the different Internet services, and that he's done it with
  CNAMEs (a alternative is using A records).

  As you see from the SOA record, the zone file originates at
  land-5.com, the contact person is root@land-5.com. hostmaster is
  another oft used address for the contact person.  The serial number is
  in the customary yyyymmdd format with todays serial number appended;
  this is probably the sixth version of zone file on the 20th of
  September 1996.  Remember that the serial number must increase
  monotonically, here there is only one digit for todays serial#, so
  after 9 edits he has to wait until tomorrow before he can edit the
  file again.  Consider using two digits.

  ______________________________________________________________________
  @       IN      SOA     land-5.com. root.land-5.com. (
                          199609206       ; serial, todays date + todays serial #
                          8H              ; refresh, seconds
                          2H              ; retry, seconds
                          1W              ; expire, seconds
                          1D )            ; minimum, seconds
                  NS      land-5.com.
                  NS      ns2.psi.net.
                  MX      10 land-5.com.  ; Primary Mail Exchanger

  localhost       A       127.0.0.1

  router          A       206.6.177.1

  land-5.com.     A       206.6.177.2
  ns              A       206.6.177.3
  www             A       207.159.141.192

  ftp             CNAME   land-5.com.
  mail            CNAME   land-5.com.
  news            CNAME   land-5.com.

  funn            A       206.6.177.2
  @               TXT     "LAND-5 Corporation"

  ;
  ;       Workstations
  ;
  ws-177200       A       206.6.177.200
                  MX      10 land-5.com.   ; Primary Mail Host
  ws-177201       A       206.6.177.201
                  MX      10 land-5.com.   ; Primary Mail Host
  ws-177202       A       206.6.177.202
                  MX      10 land-5.com.   ; Primary Mail Host
  ws-177203       A       206.6.177.203
                  MX      10 land-5.com.   ; Primary Mail Host
  ws-177204       A       206.6.177.204
                  MX      10 land-5.com.   ; Primary Mail Host
  ws-177205       A       206.6.177.205
                  MX      10 land-5.com.   ; Primary Mail Host
  ; {Many repetitive definitions deleted - SNIP}
  ws-177250       A       206.6.177.250
                  MX      10 land-5.com.   ; Primary Mail Host
  ws-177251       A       206.6.177.251
                  MX      10 land-5.com.   ; Primary Mail Host
  ws-177252       A       206.6.177.252
                  MX      10 land-5.com.   ; Primary Mail Host
  ws-177253       A       206.6.177.253
                  MX      10 land-5.com.   ; Primary Mail Host
  ws-177254       A       206.6.177.254
                  MX      10 land-5.com.   ; Primary Mail Host
  ______________________________________________________________________

  If you examine land-5s nameserver you will find that the host names
  are of the form ws_number.  As of late bind 4 versions named started
  enforcing the restrictions on what characters may be used in host
  names.  So that does not work with bind-8 at all, and I substituted
  '-' (dash) for '_' (underline).

  Another thing to note is that the workstations don't have individual
  names, but rather a prefix followed by the two last parts of the IP
  numbers.  Using such a convention can simplify maintenance
  significantly, but can be a bit impersonal, and, in fact, be a source
  of disgruntlement among your customers.

  We also see that funn.land-5.com is an alias for land-5.com, but using
  an A record, not a CNAME record.

  5.5.  /var/named/zone/206.6.177

  I'll comment on this file after it.

  ______________________________________________________________________
  @               IN      SOA     land-5.com. root.land-5.com. (
                                  199609206       ; Serial
                                  28800   ; Refresh
                                  7200    ; Retry
                                  604800  ; Expire
                                  86400)  ; Minimum TTL
                          NS      land-5.com.
                          NS      ns2.psi.net.
  ;
  ;       Servers
  ;
  1       PTR     router.land-5.com.
  2       PTR     land-5.com.
  2       PTR     funn.land-5.com.
  ;
  ;       Workstations
  ;
  200     PTR     ws-177200.land-5.com.
  201     PTR     ws-177201.land-5.com.
  202     PTR     ws-177202.land-5.com.
  203     PTR     ws-177203.land-5.com.
  204     PTR     ws-177204.land-5.com.
  205     PTR     ws-177205.land-5.com.
  ; {Many repetitive definitions deleted - SNIP}
  250     PTR     ws-177250.land-5.com.
  251     PTR     ws-177251.land-5.com.
  252     PTR     ws-177252.land-5.com.
  253     PTR     ws-177253.land-5.com.
  254     PTR     ws-177254.land-5.com.
  ______________________________________________________________________

  The reverse zone is the bit of the setup that seems to cause the most
  grief.  It is used to find the host name if you have the IP number of
  a machine.  Example: you are an IRC server and accept connections from
  IRC clients.  However you are a Norwegian IRC server and so you only
  want to accept connections from clients in Norway and other
  Scandinavian countries.  When you get a connection from a client the C
  library is able to tell you the IP number of the connecting machine
  because the IP number of the client is contained in all the packets
  that are passed over the network.  Now you can call a function called
  gethostbyaddr that looks up the name of a host given the IP number.
  Gethostbyaddr will ask a DNS server, which will then traverse the DNS
  looking for the machine.  Supposing the client connection is from
  ws-177200.land-5.com.  The IP number the C library provides to the IRC
  server is 206.6.177.200.  To find out the name of that machine we need
  to find 200.177.6.206.in-addr.arpa.  The DNS server will first find
  the arpa. servers, then find in-addr.arpa. servers, following the
  reverse trail through 206, then 6 and at last finding the server for
  the 177.6.206.in-addr.arpa zone at land-5.  From which it will finally
  get the answer that for 200.177.6.206.in-addr.arpa we have a 'PTR
  ws-177200.land-5.com' record, meaning that the name that goes with
  206.6.177.200 is ws-177200.land-5.com.  As with the explanation of how
  prep.ai.mit.edu is looked up, this is slightly fictitious.

  Getting back to the IRC server example.  The IRC server only accepts
  connections from the Scandinavian countries, i.e., *.no, *.se, *.dk,
  the name ws-177200.land-5.com clearly does not match any of those, and
  the server will deny the connection.  If there was no reverse mapping
  of 206.2.177.200 through the in-addr.arpa zone the server would have
  been unable to find the name at all and would have to settle to
  comparing 206.2.177.200 with *.no, *.se and *.dk, none of which will
  match.

  Some people will tell you that reverse lookup mappings are only
  important for servers, or not important at all.  Not so: Many ftp,
  news, IRC and even some http (WWW) servers will not accept connections
  from machines that they are not able to find the name of.  So reverse
  mappings for machines are in fact mandatory.

  6.  Maintenance

  Keeping it working.

  There is one maintenance task you have to do on nameds, other than
  keeping them running.  That's keeping the root.hints file updated.
  The easiest way is using dig, first run dig with no arguments, you
  will get the root.hints according to your own server.  Then ask one of
  the listed root servers with dig @rootserver.  You will note that the
  output looks terribly like a root.hints file.  Save it to a file (dig
  @e.root-servers.net . ns >root.hints.new) and replace the old
  root.hints with it.

  Remember to restart named after replacing the cache file.

  Al Longyear sent me this script that can be run automatically to
  update root.hints, install a crontab entry to run it once a month and
  forget it.  The script assumes you have mail working and that the
  mail-alias `hostmaster' is defined.  You must hack it to suit your
  setup.

  ______________________________________________________________________
  #!/bin/sh
  #
  # Update the nameserver cache information file once per month.
  # This is run automatically by a cron entry.
  #
  (
   echo "To: hostmaster <hostmaster>"
   echo "From: system <root>"
   echo "Subject: Automatic update of the named.conf file"
   echo

   export PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin:
   cd /var/named

   dig @rs.internic.net . ns >root.hints.new

   echo "The named.conf file has been updated to contain the following
  information:"
   echo
   cat root.hints.new

   chown root.root root.hints.new
   chmod 444 root.hints.new
   rm -f root.hints.old
   mv root.hints root.hints.old
   mv root.hints.new root.hints
   ndc restart
   echo
   echo "The nameserver has been restarted to ensure that the update is complete."
   echo "The previous root.hints file is now called
  /var/named/root.hints.old."
  ) 2>&1 | /usr/lib/sendmail -t
  exit 0
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Some of you might have picked up that the root.hints file is also
  available by ftp from Internic.  Please don't use ftp to update
  root.hints, the above method is much more friendly to the net.

  7.  Converting from version 4 to version 8

  This was originally a section on using bind 8 written by David E.
  Smith (dave@bureau42.ml.org).  I have edited it some to fit the new
  section name.

  There's not much to it.  Except for using named.conf instead of
  named.conf, everything is identical.  And bind8 comes with a perl
  script that converts old-style files to new.  Example named.conf (old
  style) for a cache-only name server:

  ______________________________________________________________________
  directory /var/named
  cache   .                                       root.hints
  primary 0.0.127.IN-ADDR.ARPA                    127.0.0.zone
  primary localhost                               localhost.zone
  ______________________________________________________________________

  On the command line, in the bind8/src/bin/named directory (this
  assumes you got a source distribution. If you got a binary package the
  script is probably around, I'm not sure where it would be though.
  -ed.), type:

  ______________________________________________________________________
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Which creates named.conf:

  ______________________________________________________________________
  // generated by named-bootconf.pl

  options {
          directory "/var/named";
  };

  zone "." {
          type hint;
          file "root.hints";
  };

  zone "0.0.127.IN-ADDR.ARPA" {
          type master;
          file "127.0.0.zone";
  };

  zone "localhost" {
          type master;
          file "localhost.zone";
  };
  ______________________________________________________________________

  It works for everything that can go into a named.conf file, although
  it doesn't add all of the new enhancements and configuration options
  that bind8 allows.  Here's a more complete named.conf that does the
  same things, but a little more efficiently.

  ______________________________________________________________________
  // This is a configuration file for named (from BIND 8.1 or later).
  // It would normally be installed as /etc/named.conf.
  // The only change made from the `stock' named.conf (aside from this
  // comment :) is that the directory line was uncommented, since I
  // already had the zone files in /var/named.

  options {
          directory "/var/named";
          check-names master warn;                /* default. */
          datasize 20M;
  };

  zone "localhost" IN {
          type master;
          file "localhost.zone";
          check-names fail;
          allow-update { none; };
          allow-transfer { any; };
  };

  zone "0.0.127.in-addr.arpa" IN {
          type master;
          file "127.0.0.zone";
          check-names fail;
          allow-update { none; };
          allow-transfer { any; };
  };

  zone "." IN {
          type hint;
          file "root.hints";
  };
  ______________________________________________________________________

  bind8/src/bin/named/test has this, and copies of the zone files, that
  many people can just drop in and use instantly.

  The formats for zone files and root.hints files are identical, as are
  the commands for updating them.

  8.  FAQ

  In this section I list some of the most frequently asked questions
  related to DNS and this HOWTO.  And the answers :-) Please read this
  section before mailing me.

  1. My named wants a named.boot file

     You are reading the wrong HOWTO.  Please see the old version of
     this HOWTO, which convers bind 4, at
     http://www.math.uio.no/~janl/DNS/

  2. How do use DNS from inside a firewall?

     A couple of hints: `forwarders', `slave', and have a look in the
     literature list at the end of this HOWTO.
  3. How do I make DNS rotate through the available addresses for a
     service, say www.busy.site to obtain a load balancing effect, or
     similar?

     Make several A records for www.busy.site and use bind 4.9.3 or
     later.  Then bind will round-robin the answers.  It will not work
     with earlier versions of bind.

  4. I want to set up DNS on a (closed) intranet.  What do I do?

     You drop the root.hints file and just do zone files.  That also
     means you don't have to get new hint files all the time.

  5. How do I set up a secondary (slave) name server?

     If the primary server has address 127.0.0.1 you put a line like
     this in the named.conf file of your secondary:

     ___________________________________________________________________
       zone "linux.bogus" {
             type slave;
             file "sz/linux.bogus";
             masters { 127.0.0.1; };
       };

     ___________________________________________________________________

  You may list several alternate master servers the zone can be copied
  from inside the masters list, separated by ';' (semicolon).

  6. I want bind running when I'm disconnected from the net.

     I have received this mail from Ian Clark <ic@deakin.edu.au> where
     he explains his way of doing this:

  I run named on my 'Masquerading' machine here. I have
  two root.hints files, one called root.hints.real which contains
  the real root server names and the other called root.hints.fake
  which contains...

  ----
  ; root.hints.fake
  ; this file contains no information
  ----

  When I go off line I copy the root.hints.fake file to root.hints and
  restart named.

  When I go online I copy root.hints.real to root.hints and restart
  named.

  This is done from ip-down & ip-up respectively.

  The first time I do a query off line on a domain name named doesn't
  have details for it puts an entry like this in messages..

  Jan 28 20:10:11 hazchem named[10147]: No root nameserver for class IN

  which I can live with.

  It certainly seems to work for me. I can use the nameserver for
  local machines while off the 'net without the timeout delay for
  external domain names and I while on the 'net queries for external
  domains work normally

  7. Where does the caching name server store its cache? Is there any
     way I can control the size of the cache?

     The cache is completely stored in memory, it is not written to disk
     at any time.  Every time you kill named the cache is lost.  The
     cache is not controllable in any way.  named manages it according
     to some simple rules and that is it.  You cannot control the cache
     or the cache size in any way for any reason. If you want to you can
     ``fix'' this by hacking named.  This is however not recommended.

  8. Does named save the cache between restarts?  Can I make it save it?

     No, named does not save the cache when it dies.  That means that
     the cache must be built anew each time you kill and restart named.
     There is no way to make named save the cache in a file.  If you
     want you can ``fix'' this by hacking named.  This is however not
     recommended.

  9.  How to become a bigger time DNS admin.

  Documentation and tools.

  Real Documentation exists.  Online and in print.  The reading of
  several of these is required to make the step from small time DNS
  admin to a big time one.  In print the standard book is DNS and BIND
  by C. Liu and P. Albitz from O'Reilly & Associates, Sebastopol, CA,
  ISBN 0-937175-82-X.  I read this, it's excellent.  There is also a
  section in on DNS in TCP/IP Network Administration, by Craig Hunt from
  O'Reilly..., ISBN 0-937175-82-X.  Another must for Good DNS
  administration (or good anything for that matter) is Zen and the Art
  of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Prisig :-) Available as ISBN
  0688052304 and others.

  Online you will find stuff on  <http://www.dns.net/dnsrd/>,
  <http://www.isc.org/bind.html>; A FAQ, a reference manual (BOG; Bind
  Operations Guide) as well as papers and protocol definitions and DNS
  hacks (these, and most, if not all, of the rfcs mentioned below, are
  also contained in the bind distribution).  I have not read most of
  these, but then I'm not a big-time DNS admin either.  Arnt Gulbrandsen
  on the other hand has read BOG and he's ecstatic about it :-).  The
  newsgroup comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains is about DNS.  In addition
  there are a number of RFCs about DNS, the most important are probably
  these:

     RFC 2052
        A. Gulbrandsen, P. Vixie, A DNS RR for specifying the location
        of services (DNS SRV), October 1996

     RFC 1918
        Y. Rekhter, R. Moskowitz, D. Karrenberg, G. de Groot, E. Lear,
        Address Allocation for Private Internets, 02/29/1996.

     RFC 1912
        D. Barr, Common DNS Operational and Configuration Errors,
        02/28/1996.

     RFC 1912 Errors
        B. Barr Errors in RFC 1912, this is available at
        <http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/~barr/rfc1912-errors.html>

     RFC 1713
        A. Romao, Tools for DNS debugging, 11/03/1994.

     RFC 1712
        C. Farrell, M. Schulze, S. Pleitner, D. Baldoni, DNS Encoding of
        Geographical Location, 11/01/1994.

     RFC 1183
        R. Ullmann, P. Mockapetris, L. Mamakos, C. Everhart, New DNS RR
        Definitions, 10/08/1990.

     RFC 1035
        P. Mockapetris, Domain names - implementation and specification,
        11/01/1987.

     RFC 1034
        P. Mockapetris, Domain names - concepts and facilities,
        11/01/1987.

     RFC 1033
        M. Lottor, Domain administrators operations guide, 11/01/1987.

     RFC 1032
        M. Stahl, Domain administrators guide, 11/01/1987.

     RFC 974
        C. Partridge, Mail routing and the domain system, 01/01/1986.

