--- name: "named-compilezone" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "bind" version: "9.20.30-1" release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/named-compilezone" --- # named-compilezone(1) zone file validity checking or converting tool ## NAME named-compilezone - zone file validity checking or converting tool ## SYNOPSIS **named-compilezone** \[**-d**\] \[**-h**\] \[**-j**\] \[**-q**\] \[**-v**\] \[**-c** class\] \[**-C** mode\] \[**-f** format\] \[**-F** format\] \[**-J** filename\] \[**-i** mode\] \[**-k** mode\] \[**-m** mode\] \[**-M** mode\] \[**-n** mode\] \[**-l** ttl\] \[**-L** serial\] \[**-r** mode\] \[**-s** style\] \[**-S** mode\] \[**-t** directory\] \[**-T** mode\] \[**-w** directory\] \[**-D**\] \[**-W** mode\] {**-o** filename} {zonename} {filename} ## DESCRIPTION **named-compilezone** checks the syntax and integrity of a zone file, and dumps the zone contents to a specified file in a specified format. Unlike **named-checkzone**, zone contents are not strictly checked by default. If the output is to be used as an actual zone file to be loaded by **named** \<#std-iscman-named\>, then the check levels should be manually configured to be at least as strict as those specified in the **named** \<#std-iscman-named\> configuration file. Running **named-checkzone** on the input prior to compiling will ensure that the zone compiles with the default requirements of **named** \<#std-iscman-named\>. ## 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** \<#std-iscman-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:ignore**. - **-i mode** This option performs post-load zone integrity checks. Possible modes are **full**, **full-sibling**, **local**, **local-sibling**, and **none** (the default). 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** \<#std-iscman-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**, and **ignore** (the default). - **-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**, and **ignore** (the default). - **-M mode** This option checks whether a MX record refers to a CNAME. Possible modes are **fail**, **warn**, and **ignore** (the default). - **-n mode** This option specifies whether NS records should be checked to see if they are addresses. Possible modes are **fail**, **warn**, and **ignore** (the default). - **-o filename** This option writes the zone output to **filename**. If **filename** is **-**, then the zone output is written to standard output. This is mandatory for **named-compilezone**. - **-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**, and **ignore** (the default). - **-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. - **-S mode** This option checks whether an SRV record refers to a CNAME. Possible modes are **fail**, **warn**, and **ignore** (the default). - **-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** and **ignore** (the default). - **-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. This is always enabled for **named-compilezone**. - **-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** \). Possible modes are **warn** and **ignore** (the default). - **zonename** This indicates the domain name of the zone being checked. - **filename** This is the name of the zone file. ## RETURN VALUES **named-compilezone** returns an exit status of 1 if errors were detected and 0 otherwise. ## SEE ALSO **[named(8)](/named/8.md)** \<#std-iscman-named\>, **[named-checkconf(8)](/named-checkconf/8.md)** \<#std-iscman-named-checkconf\>, **[named-checkzone(8)](/named-checkzone/8.md)** \<#std-iscman-named-checkzone\>, **RFC 1035** \, BIND 9 Administrator Reference Manual. ## Author Internet Systems Consortium ## Copyright 2026, Internet Systems Consortium