NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     ndc -- name daemon control program

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

     ndc [-c channel] [-l localsock] [-p pidfile] [-d] [-q] [-s] [-t]
	 [command]

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     This command allows the system administrator to control the operation of
     a name server.  If no command is given, ndc will prompt for commands
     until it reads EOF.

     Options are:

     -c channel  Specifies the rendezvous point for the control channel.  The
		 default is /var/run/ndc (a UNIX domain socket which is also
		 the server's default control channel).  If the desired control
 channel is a TCP/IP socket, then the format of the
		 channel argument is ipaddr/port (for example, 127.0.0.1/54
		 would be TCP port 54 on the local host.)

     -l localsock
		 This option will bind(2) the client side of the control channel
 to a specific address.  Servers can be configured to
		 reject connections which do not come from specific addresses.
		 The format is the same as for channel (see above).

     -p pidfile  For backward compatibility with older name servers, ndc is
		 able to use UNIX signals for control communications.  This
		 capability is optional in modern name servers and will disappear
 altogether at some future time.  Note that the available
		 command set is narrower when the signal interface is used.  A
		 likely pidfile argument would be something like
		 /var/run/named.pid.

     -d 	 Turns on debugging output, which is of interest mainly to
		 developers.

     -q 	 Suppresses prompts and result text.

     -s 	 Suppresses nonfatal error announcements.

     -t 	 Turns on protocol and system tracing, useful in installation
		 debugging.

COMMANDS    [Toc]    [Back]

     Several commands are built into ndc, but the full set of commands supported
 by the name server is dynamic and should be discovered using the
     help command (see below).	Builtin commands are:

     /help	 Provides help for builtin commands.

     /exit	 Exit from ndc command interpreter.

     /trace	 Toggle tracing (see -t description above).

     /debug	 Toggle debugging (see -d description above).

     /quiet	 Toggle quietude (see -q description above).

     /silent	 Toggle silence (see -s description above).

NOTES    [Toc]    [Back]

     If running in pidfile mode, any arguments to start and restart commands
     are passed to the new named on its command line.  If running in channel
     mode, there is no start command and the restart command just tells the
     name server to execvp(3) itself.

AUTHOR    [Toc]    [Back]

     Paul Vixie (Internet Software Consortium)

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

     named(8),

4th Berkeley Distribution      December 31, 1998     4th Berkeley Distribution