is the nsd() database compiler for creating name space databases from a set of input master zone files specified in nsd.zones file.

It is normally invoked via nsdc() rebuild command. Zonec will then parse every zone in nsd.zones file and add it to the name space database, /etc/nsd/nsd.db by default, that is used by nsd() to answer incoming queries.

If nsd.zones file equals `-` then all zone information is read from stdin. Making constructs like:

possible.

The available options are:

-d directory

Change the working directory to directory before doing any work.

-f database

Create the specified database instead of the default /etc/nsd/nsd.db

-o origin

When reading from stdin use this as the first origin. When reading zone from nsd.zones this option is ignored.

-v

Increase the verbosity of zonec. This flag can be specified multiple times to increase the level of verbosity. The first level of verbosity will print per zone summary information. The second level of will print progress information for each 10,000 RRs processed.

-F

Set debug facilities. (If compiled with --enable-checking.)

-L

Set debug level. (If compiled with --enable-checking.)

The nsd.zones file is formatted as follows: tab (@); l l. zone <zonename> <filename> [masters <IP>|<IP>|...] zone <zonename> <filename> [notify <IP>|<IP>|...]

The first word on a line must be ``zone''. It indicates that the zone should be loaded as authoritative data.

The second word is the name (origin) of the zone and the third word is the pathname to the master zone file. If you use zonec with the -d option the pathname may be relative to the NSD zones directory.

Optionally masters list-of-ip-addresses can be present to update the respective zone with axfr from the given master servers. These servers will be tried in order. This option is ignored by zonec and is only relevant for nsdc update.

Optionally a list-of-ip-addresses of server that must be notified when can be present. This option is ignored by zonec and is only relevant for nsdc notify.

A typical example would be: tab (@); l l. zone example.com primary/example.com zone example.net secondary/example.net masters 10.1.1.1

The second line indicates that nsdc update should try to axfr the zone example.net from the master server 10.1.1.1

Since NSD is primarily written to be run on the root name servers, this file most likely to contain something like: tab (@); l l. zone . root.zone

/etc/nsd/nsd.db

default NSD database

will log all the problems via the standard error output and progress via stdout if -v option is specified.

was written by NLnet Labs and RIPE NCC joint team. Please see CREDITS file in the distribution for further details.

has rather weak error diagnostics that will change in further versions. Zonec expects the input files to be free of syntax errors and very little fool proof checks are done.