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NSD(8) NSD 4.14.2 NSD(8) NAME nsd - Name Server Daemon (NSD) version 4.14.2. SYNOPSIS nsd [-4] [-6] [-a ip-address[@port]] [-c configfile] [-d] [-h] [-i iden- tity] [-I nsid] [-l logfile] [-N server-count] [-n noncurrent-tcp-count] [-P pidfile] [-p port] [-s seconds] [-t chrootdir] [-u username] [-V level] [-v] DESCRIPTION NSD is a complete implementation of an authoritative DNS nameserver. Upon startup, NSD will read the configuration file and put itself into the back- ground and answers queries on port 53 or a different port specified with -p port option. By default, NSD will bind to all local interfaces available. Use the -a ip-address[@port] option to specify a single particular inter- face address to be bound. If this option is given more than once, NSD will bind its UDP and TCP sockets to all the specified ip-addresses separately. If IPv6 is enabled when NSD is compiled an IPv6 address can also be speci- fied. OPTIONS All the options can be specified in the configfile ( -c argument), except for the -v and -h options. If options are specified on the commandline, the options on the commandline take precedence over the options in the config- file. Normally NSD should be started with the `nsd-control(8) start` command in- voked from a /etc/rc.d/nsd.sh script or similar at the operating system startup. -4 Only listen to IPv4 connections. -6 Only listen to IPv6 connections. -a ip-address[@port] Listen to the specified ip-address. The ip-address must be speci- fied in numeric format (using the standard IPv4 or IPv6 notation). Optionally, a port number can be given. This flag can be specified multiple times to listen to multiple IP addresses. If this flag is not specified, NSD listens to the wildcard interface. -c configfile Read specified configfile instead of the default /usr/lo- cal/etc/nsd/nsd.conf. For format description see nsd.conf(5). -d Do not fork, stay in the foreground. -h Print help information and exit. -i identity Return the specified identity when asked for CH TXT ID.SERVER (This option is used to determine which server is answering the queries when they are anycast). The default is the name returned by gethost- name(3). -I nsid Add the specified nsid to the EDNS section of the answer when queried with an NSID EDNS enabled packet. As a sequence of hex characters or with ascii_ prefix and then an ascii string. -l logfile Log messages to the specified logfile. The default is to log to stderr and syslog. If a zonesdir: is specified in the config file this path can be relative to that directory. -N count Start count NSD servers. The default is 1. Starting more than a sin- gle server is only useful on machines with multiple CPUs and/or net- work adapters. -n number The maximum number of concurrent TCP connection that can be handled by each server. The default is 100. -P pidfile Use the specified pidfile instead of the platform specific default, which is mostly /var/run/nsd/nsd.pid. If a zonesdir: is specified in the config file, this path can be relative to that directory. -p port Answer the queries on the specified port. Normally this is port 53. -s seconds Produce statistics dump every seconds seconds. This is equal to sending SIGUSR1 to the daemon periodically. -t chroot Specifies a directory to chroot to upon startup. This option re- quires you to ensure that appropriate syslogd(8) socket (e.g. ch- rootdir /dev/log) is available, otherwise NSD won't produce any log output. -u username Drop user and group privileges to those of username after binding the socket. The username must be one of: username, id, or id.gid. For example: nsd, 80, or 80.80. -V level This value specifies the verbosity level for (non-debug) logging. Default is 0. -v Print the version number of NSD to standard error and exit. NSD reacts to the following signals: SIGTERM Stop answering queries, shutdown, and exit normally. SIGHUP Reopen logfile (assists rotation) and optionally update TSIG keys and zones. SIGUSR1 Dump BIND8-style statistics into the log. Ignored otherwise. FILES /var/run/nsd/nsd.pid the process id of the name server. /usr/local/etc/nsd/nsd.conf default NSD configuration file DIAGNOSTICS NSD will log all the problems via the standard syslog(8) daemon facility, unless the -d option is specified. SEE ALSO nsd.conf(5), nsd-checkconf(8), nsd-control(8) AUTHORS NSD was written by NLnet Labs and RIPE NCC joint team. Please see CREDITS file in the distribution for further details. NLnet Labs Mar 19, 2026 NSD(8)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | FILES | DIAGNOSTICS | SEE ALSO | AUTHORS
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