Enable debugging.

Print the usage summary and exit.

Quiet mode - exit code only.

Print the version of the named-checkzone program and exit.

When loading a zone file, read the journal if it exists. The journal file name is assumed to be the zone file name appended with the string .jnl.

When loading the zone file read the journal from the given file, if it exists. (Implies -j.)

Specify the class of the zone. If not specified, "IN" is assumed.

Perform post-load zone integrity checks. Possible modes are "full" (default), "full-sibling", "local", "local-sibling" and "none".

Mode "full" checks that MX records refer to A or AAAA record (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 record (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 record (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 that some required glue exists, that is when the nameserver is in a child zone.

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

Mode "none" disables the checks.

Specify the format of the zone file. Possible formats are "text" (default), "raw", and "map".

Specify the format of the output file specified. For named-checkzone, this does not cause any effects unless it dumps the zone contents.

Possible formats are "text" (default), which is the standard textual representation of the zone, and "map", "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 be read by release 9.9.0 or higher; the default is 1.

Perform "check-names" checks with the specified failure mode. Possible modes are "fail" (default for named-compilezone), "warn" (default for named-checkzone) and "ignore".

Sets a maximum permissible TTL for the input file. Any record with a TTL higher than this value will cause the zone to be rejected. This is similar to using the max-zone-ttl option in named.conf.

When compiling a zone to "raw" or "map" format, set the "source serial" value in the header to the specified serial number. (This is expected to be used primarily for testing purposes.)

Specify whether MX records should be checked to see if they are addresses. Possible modes are "fail", "warn" (default) and "ignore".

Check if a MX record refers to a CNAME. Possible modes are "fail", "warn" (default) and "ignore".

Specify whether NS records should be checked to see if they are addresses. Possible modes are "fail" (default for named-compilezone), "warn" (default for named-checkzone) and "ignore".

Write zone output to filename. If filename is - then write to standard out. This is mandatory for named-compilezone.

Check for records that are treated as different by DNSSEC but are semantically equal in plain DNS. Possible modes are "fail", "warn" (default) and "ignore".

Specify the style of the dumped zone file. Possible styles are "full" (default) and "relative". The full format is most suitable for processing automatically by a separate script. On the other hand, the relative format is more human-readable and is thus suitable for editing by hand. For named-checkzone this does not cause any effects unless it dumps the zone contents. It also does not have any meaning if the output format is not text.

Check if a SRV record refers to a CNAME. Possible modes are "fail", "warn" (default) and "ignore".

Chroot to directory so that include directives in the configuration file are processed as if run by a similarly chrooted named.

Check if Sender Policy Framework (SPF) records exist and issues a warning if an SPF-formatted TXT record is not also present. Possible modes are "warn" (default), "ignore".

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

Dump zone file in canonical format. This is always enabled for named-compilezone.

Specify 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 1034). Possible modes are "warn" (default) and "ignore".

The domain name of the zone being checked.

The name of the zone file.