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  <TITLE>BIND Configuration File Guide</TITLE>
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<H2>BIND Configuration File Guide</H2>

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<H3>Overview</H3>

<P>BIND 8 is much more configurable than previous release of BIND.
There are entirely new areas of configuration, such as access control lists
and categorized logging.  Many options that previously applied to all zones
can now be used selectively.  These features, plus a consideration of future
configuration needs led to the creation of a new configuration file format.

<H3>The Configuration File</H3>

<H4><A HREF="example.html">Example Configuration</A></H4>

<H4>Statements</H4>

<P>A BIND 8 configuration consists of statements and comments.
Statements end with a semicolon.  Many statements contain a block of
substatements, which are also terminated with a semicolon.</P>

<P>The following statements are supported:
<DL>
<DT><CODE><A HREF="acl.html">acl</A></CODE>
<DD>
defines a named IP address matching list, for access control and other uses

<DT><CODE><A HREF="include.html">include</A></CODE>
<DD>
includes a file

<DT><CODE><A HREF="key.html">key</A></CODE>
<DD>
specifies key information for use in authentication and authorization

<DT><CODE><A HREF="logging.html">logging</A></CODE>
<DD>
specifies what the server logs, and where the log messages are sent

<DT><CODE><A HREF="options.html">options</A></CODE>
<DD>
controls global server configuration options and sets defaults for other
statements

<DT><CODE><A HREF="controls.html">controls</A></CODE>
<DD>
declares control channels to be used by the <VAR>ndc</VAR> utility

<DT><CODE><A HREF="server.html">server</A></CODE>
<DD>
sets certain configuration options on a per-server basis

<DT><CODE><A HREF="trusted-keys.html">trusted-keys</A></CODE>
<DD>
defines DNSSEC keys that are preconfigured into the server and implicitly
trusted

<DT><CODE><A HREF="zone.html">zone</A></CODE>
<DD>
defines a zone
</DL>

<P>The <CODE>logging</CODE> and <CODE>options</CODE> statements may only
occur once per configuration.

<H4>Comments</H4>

The BIND 8 <A HREF="comments.html">comment syntax</A> allows for
comments to appear anywhere that whitespace may appear in a BIND
configuration file.  To appeal to programmers of all kinds, they can
be written in C, C++, or shell/perl constructs.

<H3>Converting from BIND 4.9.x</H3>

<P>BIND 4.9.x configuration files can be converted to the new format
by using <CODE>src/bin/named/named-bootconf.pl</CODE>, a perl script that
is part of the BIND 8.1 source kit.

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Last Updated: $Id: config.html,v 1.8 1999/04/28 14:53:00 gson Exp $
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