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<H2>BIND Configuration File Guide--Documentation Definitions</H2>

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<H3>Syntactic Miscellany</H3>

<P>Described below are elements used throughout the BIND configuration
file documentation.  Elements which are only associated with one
statement are described only in the section describing that statement.

<DL>
<DT><VAR>acl_name</VAR>
<DD>
The name of an <A HREF="address_list.html">address match list</A>,
as defined by the <A HREF="acl.html">acl</A> statement.

<DT><VAR>address_match_list</VAR>
<DD>
A list of one or more <VAR>ip_address</VAR>, <VAR>ip_prefix</VAR>
<VAR>key_id</VAR> or <VAR>acl_name</VAR> elements, as described in the
<A HREF="address_list.html">Address Match Lists</A> section.

<DT><VAR>dotted-decimal</VAR>
<DD>
One or more integers valued 0 through 255 separated only by dots
(&quot;.&quot;), such as <CODE>123</CODE> or <CODE>45.67</CODE> or
<CODE>89.123.45.67</CODE>.

<DT><VAR>domain_name</VAR>
<DD>
A quoted string which will be used as a DNS name, for example 
<CODE>"my.test.domain"</CODE>.

<DT><VAR>path_name</VAR>
<DD>
A quoted string which will be used as a pathname, such as 
<CODE>"zones/master/my.test.domain"</CODE>.

<DT><VAR>ip_addr</VAR>
<DD>
An IP address in with exactly four elements in
<VAR>dotted-decimal</VAR> notation.

<DT><VAR>ip_port</VAR>
<DD>
An IP port <VAR>number</VAR>.  <VAR>number</VAR> is limited to 0
through 65535, with values below 1024 typically restricted to
root-owned processes.  In some cases an asterisk (``*'') character
can be used as a placeholder to select a random high-numbered port.

<DT><VAR>ip_prefix</VAR>
<DD>
An IP network specified in <VAR>dotted-decimal</VAR> form, followed by "/"
and then the number of bits in the netmask.  E.g. <CODE>127/8</CODE> is
the network <CODE>127.0.0.0</CODE> with netmask <CODE>255.0.0.0</CODE>.
<CODE>1.2.3.0/24</CODE> is network <CODE>1.2.3.0</CODE> with netmask
<CODE>255.255.255.0</CODE>.

<DT><VAR>key_id</VAR>
<DD>
A string representing the name of a shared key, to be used for transaction
security.

<DT><VAR>number</VAR>
<DD>
A non-negative integer with an entire range limited by the range of a
C language signed integer (2,147,483,647 on a machine with 32 bit
integers).  Its acceptable value might further be limited by the
context in which it is used.

<DT><VAR>size_spec</VAR>
<DD>
A <VAR>number</VAR>, the word <CODE>unlimited</CODE>, or the word
<CODE>default</CODE>.

<P>The maximum value of <VAR>size_spec</VAR> is that of unsigned long
integers on the machine.  <CODE>unlimited</CODE> requests unlimited use, or
the maximum available amount.  <CODE>default</CODE> uses the limit that
was in force when the server was started.</P>

<P>A <VAR>number</VAR> can optionally be followed by a scaling factor:
<CODE>K</CODE> or <CODE>k</CODE> for kilobytes, <CODE>M</CODE> or
<CODE>m</CODE> for megabytes, and <CODE>G</CODE> or <CODE>g</CODE> for
gigabytes, which scale by 1024, 1024*1024, and 1024*1024*1024
respectively.

<P>Integer storage overflow is currently silently ignored during
conversion of scaled values, resulting in values less than intended,
possibly even negative.  Using <CODE>unlimited</CODE> is the best way
to safely set a really large number.</P>

<DT><VAR>yes_or_no</VAR>
<DD>
Either <CODE>yes</CODE> or <CODE>no</CODE>.  The words
<CODE>true</CODE> and <CODE>false</CODE> are also accepted, as are the
numbers <CODE>1</CODE> and <CODE>0</CODE>.

</DL>

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