named-checkzone(1) BIND 9 named-checkzone(1)
NAME
named-checkzone - zone file validity checking or converting tool
SYNOPSIS
named-checkzone [-d] [-h] [-j] [-q] [-v] [-c class] [-C mode] [-f
format] [-F format] [-J filename] [-i mode] [-k mode] [-m mode] [-M
mode] [-n mode] [-l ttl] [-L serial] [-o filename] [-r mode] [-s style]
[-S mode] [-t directory] [-T mode] [-w directory] [-D] [-W mode]
{zonename} {filename}
DESCRIPTION
named-checkzone checks the syntax and integrity of a zone file. It
performs the same checks as named <#std-iscman-named> does when loading
a zone. This makes named-checkzone useful for checking zone files
before configuring them into a name server.
OPTIONS
-d This option enables debugging.
-h This option prints the usage summary and exits.
-q This option sets quiet mode, which only sets an exit code to
indicate successful or failed completion.
-v This option prints the version of the named-checkzone program
and exits.
-j When loading a zone file, this option tells named <#std-iscman-
named> to read the journal if it exists. The journal file name
is assumed to be the zone file name with the string .jnl
appended.
-J filename
When loading the zone file, this option tells named <#std-
iscman-named> to read the journal from the given file, if it
exists. This implies -j.
-c class
This option specifies the class of the zone. If not specified,
IN is assumed.
-C mode
This option controls check mode on zone files when loading.
Possible modes are check-svcb:fail and check-svcb:ignore.
check-svcb:fail turns on additional checks on _dns SVCB records
and check-svcb:ignore disables these checks. The default is
check-svcb:fail.
-i mode
This option performs post-load zone integrity checks. Possible
modes are full (the default), full-sibling, local,
local-sibling, and none.
Mode full checks that MX records refer to A or AAAA records
(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 records
(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
records (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 verifies that some required glue exists,
i.e., when the name server is in a child zone.
Modes full-sibling and local-sibling disable sibling glue
checks, but are otherwise the same as full and local,
respectively.
Mode none disables the checks.
-f format
This option specifies the format of the zone file. Possible
formats are text (the default), and raw.
-F format
This option specifies the format of the output file specified.
For named-checkzone, this does not have any effect unless it
dumps the zone contents.
Possible formats are text (the default), which is the standard
textual representation of the zone, and raw and raw=N, which
store the zone in a binary format for rapid loading by named <#
std-iscman-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 <#std-iscman-named>; if N is 1, the file can
only be read by release 9.9.0 or higher. The default is 1.
-k mode
This option performs check-names checks with the specified
failure mode. Possible modes are fail, warn (the default), and
ignore.
-l ttl This option sets a maximum permissible TTL for the input file.
Any record with a TTL higher than this value causes the zone to
be rejected. This is similar to using the max-zone-ttl option in
named.conf <#std-iscman-named.conf>.
-L serial
When compiling a zone to raw format, this option sets the
"source serial" value in the header to the specified serial
number. This is expected to be used primarily for testing
purposes.
-m mode
This option specifies whether MX records should be checked to
see if they are addresses. Possible modes are fail, warn (the
default), and ignore.
-M mode
This option checks whether a MX record refers to a CNAME.
Possible modes are fail, warn (the default), and ignore.
-n mode
This option specifies whether NS records should be checked to
see if they are addresses. Possible modes are fail, warn (the
default), and ignore.
-o filename
This option writes the zone output to filename. If filename is
-, then the zone output is written to standard output.
-r mode
This option checks for records that are treated as different by
DNSSEC but are semantically equal in plain DNS. Possible modes
are fail, warn (the default), and ignore.
-s style
This option specifies the style of the dumped zone file.
Possible styles are full (the default) and relative. The full
format is most suitable for processing automatically by a
separate script. The relative format is more human-readable and
is thus suitable for editing by hand. This does not have any
effect unless it dumps the zone contents. It also does not have
any meaning if the output format is not text.
-S mode
This option checks whether an SRV record refers to a CNAME.
Possible modes are fail, warn (the default), and ignore.
-t directory
This option tells named <#std-iscman-named> to chroot to
directory, so that include directives in the configuration file
are processed as if run by a similarly chrooted named <#std-
iscman-named>.
-T mode
This option checks whether Sender Policy Framework (SPF) records
exist and issues a warning if an SPF-formatted TXT record is not
also present. Possible modes are warn (the default) and ignore.
-w directory
This option instructs named <#std-iscman-named> to chdir to
directory, so that relative filenames in master file $INCLUDE
directives work. This is similar to the directory clause in
named.conf <#std-iscman-named.conf>.
-D This option dumps the zone file in canonical format.
-W mode
This option specifies 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
4592 <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc4592.html>).
Possible modes are warn (the default) and ignore.
zonename
This indicates the domain name of the zone being checked.
filename
This is the name of the zone file.
RETURN VALUES
named-checkzone returns an exit status of 1 if errors were detected and
0 otherwise.
SEE ALSO
named(8) <#std-iscman-named>, named-checkconf(8) <#std-iscman-named-
checkconf>, named-compilezone(8) <#std-iscman-named-compilezone>, RFC
1035 <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1035.html>, BIND 9
Administrator Reference Manual.
Author
Internet Systems Consortium
Copyright
2026, Internet Systems Consortium
9.20.21 2026-03-13 named-checkzone(1)
bind 9.20.21 - Generated Fri Apr 3 14:18:46 CDT 2026