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NAMED-CHECKZONE(1)		     BIND 9		      NAMED-CHECKZONE(1)

NAME
     named-checkzone - zone file validity checking or converting tool

SYNOPSIS
     named-checkzone  [-d]  [-h] [-j] [-q] [-v] [-c class] [-C mode] [-f format]
     [-F format] [-J filename] [-i mode] [-k mode] [-m mode] [-M mode] [-n mode]
     [-l ttl] [-L serial] [-o filename] [-r mode] [-s style] [-S mode]	[-t  di-
     rectory] [-T mode] [-w directory] [-D] [-W mode] {zonename} {filename}

DESCRIPTION
     named-checkzone checks the syntax and integrity of a zone file. It performs
     the  same checks as named does when loading a zone. This makes named-check-
     zone useful for checking zone files before configuring  them  into  a  name
     server.

OPTIONS
     -d     This option enables debugging.

     -h     This option prints the usage summary and exits.

     -q     This  option  sets quiet mode, which only sets an exit code to indi-
	    cate successful or failed completion.

     -v     This option prints the version of the  named-checkzone  program  and
	    exits.

     -j     When  loading a zone file, this option tells named to read the jour-
	    nal if it exists. The journal file name is assumed to  be  the  zone
	    file name with the string .jnl appended.

     -J filename
	    When  loading  the	zone  file,  this option tells named to read the
	    journal from the given file, if it exists. This implies -j.

     -c class
	    This option specifies the class of the zone. If not specified, IN is
	    assumed.

     -C mode
	    This option controls check mode on zone files when loading.   Possi-
	    ble modes are check-svcb:fail and check-svcb:ignore.

	    check-svcb:fail  turns on additional checks on _dns SVCB records and
	    check-svcb:ignore	disables   these   checks.    The   default   is
	    check-svcb:fail.

     -i mode
	    This option performs post-load zone integrity checks. Possible modes
	    are  full  (the  default),	full-sibling,  local, local-sibling, and
	    none.

	    Mode full checks that MX records refer to A or  AAAA  records  (both
	    in-zone  and  out-of-zone  hostnames).  Mode  local  only  checks MX
	    records which refer to in-zone hostnames.

	    Mode full checks that SRV records refer to A or AAAA  records  (both
	    in-zone  and  out-of-zone  hostnames).  Mode  local  only checks SRV
	    records which refer to in-zone hostnames.

	    Mode full checks that delegation NS  records  refer  to  A	or  AAAA
	    records  (both  in-zone  and  out-of-zone hostnames). It also checks
	    that glue address records in the zone match those advertised by  the
	    child.   Mode  local  only	checks NS records which refer to in-zone
	    hostnames or verifies that some required glue exists, i.e., when the
	    name server is in a child zone.

	    Modes full-sibling and local-sibling disable  sibling  glue  checks,
	    but are otherwise the same as full and local, respectively.

	    Mode none disables the checks.

     -f format
	    This  option specifies the format of the zone file. Possible formats
	    are text (the default), and raw.

     -F format
	    This option specifies the format of the output file  specified.  For
	    named-checkzone,  this  does not have any effect unless it dumps the
	    zone contents.

	    Possible formats are text (the default), which is the standard  tex-
	    tual  representation of the zone, and raw and raw=N, which store the
	    zone in a binary format for rapid loading by named.  raw=N specifies
	    the format version of the raw zone file: if N is 0, the raw file can
	    be read by any version of named; if N is 1, the  file  can	only  be
	    read by release 9.9.0 or higher. The default is 1.

     -k mode
	    This  option  performs check-names checks with the specified failure
	    mode.  Possible modes are fail, warn (the default), and ignore.

     -l ttl
	    This option sets a maximum permissible TTL for the input  file.  Any
	    record  with  a TTL higher than this value causes the zone to be re-
	    jected.  This  is  similar	to  using  the	max-zone-ttl  option  in
	    named.conf.

     -L serial
	    When  compiling  a	zone to raw format, this option sets the "source
	    serial" value in the header to the specified serial number. This  is
	    expected to be used primarily for testing purposes.

     -m mode
	    This option specifies whether MX records should be checked to see if
	    they are addresses. Possible modes are fail, warn (the default), and
	    ignore.

     -M mode
	    This  option  checks whether a MX record refers to a CNAME. Possible
	    modes are fail, warn (the default), and ignore.

     -n mode
	    This option specifies whether NS records should be checked to see if
	    they are addresses. Possible modes are fail, warn (the default), and
	    ignore.

     -o filename
	    This option writes the zone output to filename. If	filename  is  -,
	    then the zone output is written to standard output.

     -r mode
	    This  option  checks  for  records	that are treated as different by
	    DNSSEC but are semantically equal in plain DNS. Possible  modes  are
	    fail, warn (the default), and ignore.

     -s style
	    This  option  specifies  the style of the dumped zone file. Possible
	    styles are full (the default) and relative. The full format is  most
	    suitable  for  processing  automatically  by a separate script.  The
	    relative format is more human-readable  and  is  thus  suitable  for
	    editing  by  hand. This does not have any effect unless it dumps the
	    zone contents. It also does not have any meaning if the output  for-
	    mat is not text.

     -S mode
	    This option checks whether an SRV record refers to a CNAME. Possible
	    modes are fail, warn (the default), and ignore.

     -t directory
	    This  option tells named to chroot to directory, so that include di-
	    rectives in the configuration file are processed as if run by a sim-
	    ilarly chrooted named.

     -T mode
	    This option checks whether Sender Policy Framework (SPF) records ex-
	    ist and issues a warning if an SPF-formatted TXT record is not  also
	    present. Possible modes are warn (the default) and ignore.

     -w directory
	    This  option instructs named to chdir to directory, so that relative
	    filenames in master file $INCLUDE directives work. This  is  similar
	    to the directory clause in named.conf.

     -D     This option dumps the zone file in canonical format.

     -W mode
	    This  option  specifies whether to check for non-terminal wildcards.
	    Non-terminal wildcards are almost always the result of a failure  to
	    understand	the  wildcard  matching  algorithm  (RFC 4592). Possible
	    modes are warn (the default) and ignore.

     zonename
	    This indicates the domain name of the zone being checked.

     filename
	    This is the name of the zone file.

RETURN VALUES
     named-checkzone returns an exit status of 1 if errors were detected  and  0
     otherwise.

SEE ALSO
     named(8), named-checkconf(8), named-compilezone(8), RFC 1035, BIND 9 Admin-
     istrator Reference Manual.

AUTHOR
     Internet Systems Consortium

COPYRIGHT
     2026, Internet Systems Consortium

9.20.26 			   2026-07-20		      NAMED-CHECKZONE(1)

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