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KNOTC(8) Knot DNS KNOTC(8) NAME knotc - Knot DNS control utility SYNOPSIS knotc [config_option] [options] [action] DESCRIPTION This program controls a running knotd process using a socket. If an action is specified, it is performed and knotc exits, otherwise the program is executed in the interactive mode. Config options -c, --config file Use a textual configuration file (default is /usr/lo- cal/etc/knot/knot.conf). -C, --confdb directory Use a binary configuration database directory (default is /usr/lo- cal/var/lib/knot/confdb). The default configuration database, if exists, has a preference to the default configuration file. Options -m, --max-conf-size MiB Set maximum size of the configuration database (default is 500 MiB, maximum 10000 MiB). -s, --socket path Use a control UNIX socket path (default is /usr/lo- cal/var/run/knot/knot.sock). -t, --timeout seconds Use a control timeout in seconds. Set to 0 for infinity (default is 60). The control socket operations are also subject to the timeout parameter set on the server side in server's Control configuration section. -b, --blocking Zone event trigger commands wait until the event is finished. Con- trol timeout is set to infinity if not forced by explicit timeout specification. -e, --extended Show extended output (even empty items in zone status). -f, --force Forced operation. Overrides some checks. -x, --mono Don't generate colorized output. -X, --color Force colorized output in extended output or to a pipe. -v, --verbose Enable debug output. -h, --help Print the program help. -V, --version Print the program version. The option -VV makes the program print the compile time configuration summary. Actions status [detail] Check if the server is running. Details are version for the running server version, workers for the numbers of worker threads, configure for the configure summary, or cert-key for the public key pin of the currently used certificate. stop Stop the server if running. reload Reload the server configuration and modified zone files, and reopen the log files if they are configured. All open zone transactions will be aborted! stats [module[.counter]] Show global statistics counter(s). To print also counters with value 0, use force option. zone-check [zone...] Test if the server can load the zone. Semantic checks are executed if enabled in the configuration. If invoked with the force option, an error is returned when semantic check warning appears. (*) zone-status [zone...] [filter] Show the zone status. Filters are +role, +serial, +transaction, +events, +freeze, and +catalog. Empty zone parameters are omitted, unless the --extended option is used. A single dash in the output represents an unset value. Automatic colorization can be overruled using the --mono and --color options. The color code is: green - zone acts as a master / red - zone acts as a slave, bold font (highlited) - zone is active / normal - zone is empty, underscored - zone is an interpreted catalog member. zone-reload [zone...] Trigger a zone reload from a disk without checking its modification time. For secondary zone, the refresh event from primary server(s) is scheduled; for primary zone, the notify event to secondary server(s) is scheduled. An open zone transaction will be aborted! If invoked with the force option, also zone modules will be re-loaded, but blocking mode might not work reliably. (#) zone-refresh [zone...] Trigger a check for the zone serial on the zone's primary server. If the primary server has a newer zone, a transfer is scheduled. This command is valid for secondary zones. (#) zone-retransfer [zone...] Trigger a zone transfer from the zone's primary server. The server doesn't check the serial of the primary server's zone. This command is valid for secondary zones. (#) zone-notify [zone...] Trigger a NOTIFY message to all configured remotes. This can help in cases when previous NOTIFY had been lost or the secondary servers have been offline. (#) zone-flush [zone...] [+outdir directory] Trigger a zone journal flush to the configured zone file. If zone- file synchronization is disabled, the force option must be used. If an output directory is specified, the current zone is immediately dumped (in the blocking mode) to a zone file in the specified direc- tory. See Notes below about the directory permissions. (#) zone-backup [zone...] +backupdir directory [filter...] Trigger a zone data and metadata backup to a specified directory. Available filters are +zonefile, +journal, +timers, +kaspdb, +keysonly, +catalog, +quic, and their negative counterparts +nozone- file, +nojournal, +notimers, +nokaspdb, +nokeysonly, +nocatalog, and +noquic. With these filters set, zone contents, zone's journal, zone-related timers, zone-related data in the KASP database together with keys (or keys without the KASP database), zone's catalog, and the server QUIC key and certificate, respectively, are backed up, or omitted from the backup. By default, filters +zonefile, +timers, +kaspdb, +catalog, +quic, +nojournal, and +nokeysonly are set for backup. The same defaults are set for restore, with the only differ- ence being +noquic. Setting a filter for an item doesn't change the default settings for other items. The only exception is +keysonly, which disables all other filters by default, but they can still be turned on explicitly. If zone flushing is disabled, the original zone file is backed up instead of writing out zone contents to a file. When backing-up a catalog zone, it is recommended to prevent ongoing changes to it by use of zone-freeze. The force option allows an already existing backupdir to be overwritten. See Notes below about the directory permissions. (#) zone-restore [zone...] +backupdir directory [filter...] Trigger a zone data and metadata restore from a specified backup di- rectory. Optional filters are equivalent to the same filters of zone-backup. Restore from backups created by Knot DNS releases prior to 3.1 is possible with the force option. See Notes below about the directory permissions. (#) zone-sign [zone...] Trigger a DNSSEC re-sign of the zone. Existing signatures will be dropped. This command is valid for zones with DNSSEC signing en- abled. (#) zone-validate [zone...] Trigger a DNSSEC validation of the zone. If the validation fails and the zone is secondary, the zone expires immediately! (#) zone-keys-load [zone...] Trigger a load of DNSSEC keys and other signing material from KASP database (which might have been altered manually). If suitable, re-sign the zone afterwards (keeping valid signatures intact). (#) zone-key-rollover zone key_type Trigger immediate key rollover. Publish new key and start a key rollover, even when the key has a lifetime to go. Key type can be ksk (also for CSK) or zsk. This command is valid for zones with DNSSEC signing and automatic key management enabled. Note that com- plete key rollover consists of several steps and the blocking mode relates to the initial one only! (#) zone-ksk-submitted zone... [+ttl seconds] Use when the zone's KSK rollover is in submission phase. By calling this command the user confirms manually that the parent zone con- tains DS record for the new KSK in submission phase and the old KSK can be retired. The optional +ttl parameter specifies the parent DS's TTL and possibly other delays, with the effect that the removal of old KSK is postponed by this number of seconds. (#) zone-freeze [zone...] Trigger a zone freeze. All running events will be finished and all new and pending (planned) zone-changing events (load, refresh, up- date, flush, and DNSSEC signing) will be held up until the zone is thawed. Up to 8 (this limit is hardcoded) DDNS updates per zone will be queued, subsequent updates will be refused. Zone freeze state does not persist across server restarts! (#) zone-thaw [zone...] Trigger dismissal of zone freeze. (#) zone-xfr-freeze [zone...] Temporarily disable outgoing AXFR/IXFR for the zone(s). Zone trans- fer freeze state persists across server restarts. (#) zone-xfr-thaw [zone...] Dismiss outgoing XFR freeze. (#) zone-read zone [owner [type]] Get zone data that are currently being presented. zone-begin zone... [+benevolent] Begin a zone transaction. If +benevolent is used, the transaction will be committed even if it contains removals of non-existent records or additions of existing records. zone-commit zone... Commit the zone transaction. All changes are applied to the zone. zone-abort zone... Abort the zone transaction. All changes are discarded. zone-diff zone Get zone changes within the transaction. zone-get zone [owner [type]] Get zone data within the transaction. zone-set zone owner [ttl] type rdata Add zone record within the transaction. The first record in a rrset requires a ttl value specified. zone-unset zone owner [type [rdata]] Remove zone data within the transaction. zone-purge zone... [+orphan] [filter...] Purge zone data, zone file, journal, timers, and/or KASP data of specified zones. Available filters are +expire, +zonefile, +jour- nal, +timers, +kaspdb, and +catalog. If no filter is specified, all filters are enabled. If the zone is no longer configured, add +or- phan parameter (zone file cannot be purged in this case). When purg- ing orphans, always check the server log for possible errors. For proper operation, it's necessary to prevent ongoing changes to the zone and triggering of zone related events during purge; use of zone-freeze is advisable. This command always requires the force op- tion. (#) zone-stats zone [module[.counter]] Show zone statistics counter(s). To print also counters with value 0, use force option. zone-serial-set zone [[+]serial] Set the zone SOA serial to the specified value. If the argument is prefixed with +, the serial is incremented by that value (the spe- cial constant MAX can be used to increment by the maximum allowed value 2147483647). If the zone transaction is open, both reading and writing of the SOA serial occur within that transaction. Other- wise, a short-lived transaction is created and committed solely for setting the new SOA serial. If no argument is specified, the cur- rent zone SOA serial is returned. conf-init Initialize the configuration database. If the database doesn't exist yet, execute this command as an intended user to ensure the server is permitted to access the database (e.g. sudo -u knot knotc conf-init). (*) conf-check Check the server configuration. (*) conf-import filename [+nopurge] Import a configuration file into the configuration database. If the database doesn't exist yet, execute this command as an intended user to ensure the server is permitted to access the database (e.g. sudo -u knot knotc conf-import ...). An optional filter +nopurge pre- vents possibly existing configuration database from purging before the import itself. Also ensure the server is not using the configu- ration database at the same time! (*) conf-export [filename] [+schema] Export the configuration database (or JSON schema) into a file or stdout. (*) conf-list [item] List the configuration database sections or section items. conf-read [item] Read the item from the active configuration database. conf-begin Begin a writing configuration database transaction. Only one trans- action can be opened at a time. conf-commit Commit the configuration database transaction. conf-abort Rollback the configuration database transaction. conf-diff [item] Get the item difference in the transaction. conf-get [item] Get the item data from the transaction. conf-set item [data...] Set the item data in the transaction. conf-unset [item] [data...] Unset the item data in the transaction. Notes Empty or -- zone parameter means all zones or all zones with a transaction. Use @ owner to denote the zone name. Type item parameter in the form of section[[id]][.name]. (*) indicates a local operation which requires a configuration. (#) indicates an optionally blocking operation. The -b and -f options can be placed right after the command name. Responses returned by knotc commands depend on the mode: * In the blocking mode, knotc reports if an error occurred during process- ing of the command by the server. If an error is reported, a more de- tailed information about the failure can usually be found in the server log. * In the non-blocking (default) mode, knotc doesn't report processing er- rors. The OK response to triggering commands means that the command has been successfully sent to the server. To verify if the operation suc- ceeded, it's necessary to check the server log. Actions zone-flush, zone-backup, and zone-restore are carried out by the knotd process. The directory specified must be accessible to the user ac- count that knotd runs under and if the directory already exists, its per- missions must be appropriate for that user account. Interactive mode The utility provides interactive mode with basic line editing functional- ity, command completion, and command history. Interactive mode behavior can be customized in ~/.editrc. Refer to ed- itrc(5) for details. Command history is saved in ~/.knotc_history. EXIT VALUES Exit status of 0 means successful operation. Any other exit status indi- cates an error. EXAMPLES Reload the whole server configuration $ knotc reload Flush the example.com and example.org zones $ knotc zone-flush example.com example.org Get the current server configuration $ knotc conf-read server Get the list of the current zones $ knotc conf-read zone.domain Get the primary servers for the example.com zone $ knotc conf-read 'zone[example.com].master' Add example.org zone with a zonefile location $ knotc conf-begin $ knotc conf-set 'zone[example.org]' $ knotc conf-set 'zone[example.org].file' '/var/zones/example.org.zone' $ knotc conf-commit Get the SOA record for each configured zone $ knotc zone-read -- @ SOA SEE ALSO knotd(8), knot.conf(5), editrc(5). AUTHOR CZ.NIC, z.s.p.o. and contributors <https://www.knot-dns.cz/> COPYRIGHT Copyright (C) CZ.NIC, z.s.p.o. and contributors 3.5.6 2026-07-20 KNOTC(8)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | EXIT VALUES | EXAMPLES | SEE ALSO | AUTHOR | COPYRIGHT
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