ndc(ADMN)

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

   DESCRIPTION
        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(SSC-osr5) 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
        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
        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(S-osr5)
        itself.
   

   AUTHOR
        Paul Vixie (Internet Software Consortium)
   

   SEE ALSO
        named(ADMN)
   

   4th Berkeley Distribution      December 31, 1998                             2