nsupdate
NSUPDATE(8) NSUPDATE(8)
NAME
nsupdate - Dynamic DNS update utility
SYNOPSIS
nsupdate [ -d ] [ [ -y keyname:secret ] [ -k keyfile ] ] [ -v ] [
filename ]
DESCRIPTION
nsupdate is used to submit Dynamic DNS Update requests as defined in
RFC2136 to a name server. This allows resource records to be added or
removed from a zone without manually editing the zone file. A single
update request can contain requests to add or remove more than one
resource record.
Zones that are under dynamic control via nsupdate or a DHCP server
should not be edited by hand. Manual edits could conflict with dynamic
updates and cause data to be lost.
The resource records that are dynamically added or removed with nsup-
date have to be in the same zone. Requests are sent to the zone's mas-
ter server. This is identified by the MNAME field of the zone's SOA
record.
The -d option makes nsupdate operate in debug mode. This provides
tracing information about the update requests that are made and the
replies received from the name server.
Transaction signatures can be used to authenticate the Dynamic DNS
updates. These use the TSIG resource record type described in RFC2845.
The signatures rely on a shared secret that should only be known to
nsupdate and the name server. Currently, the only supported encryption
algorithm for TSIG is HMAC-MD5, which is defined in RFC 2104. Once
other algorithms are defined for TSIG, applications will need to ensure
they select the appropriate algorithm as well as the key when authenti-
cating each other. For instance suitable key and server statements
would be added to /etc/named.conf so that the name server can associate
the appropriate secret key and algorithm with the IP address of the
client application that will be using TSIG authentication. nsupdate
does not read /etc/named.conf.
nsupdate uses the -y or -k option to provide the shared secret needed
to generate a TSIG record for authenticating Dynamic DNS update
requests. These options are mutually exclusive. With the -k option,
nsupdate reads the shared secret from the file keyfile, whose name is
of the form K{name}.+157.+{random}.private. For historical reasons,
the file K{name}.+157.+{random}.key must also be present. When the -y
option is used, a signature is generated from keyname:secret. keyname
is the name of the key, and secret is the base64 encoded shared secret.
Use of the -y option is discouraged because the shared secret is sup-
plied as a command line argument in clear text. This may be visible in
the output from ps(1) or in a history file maintained by the user's
shell.
By default nsupdate uses UDP to send update requests to the name
server. The -v option makes nsupdate use a TCP connection. This may
be preferable when a batch of update requests is made.
INPUT FORMAT
nsupdate reads input from filename or standard input. Each command is
supplied on exactly one line of input. Some commands are for adminis-
trative purposes. The others are either update instructions or prereq-
uisite checks on the contents of the zone. These checks set conditions
that some name or set of resource records (RRset) either exists or is
absent from the zone. These conditions must be met if the entire
update request is to succeed. Updates will be rejected if the tests
for the prerequisite conditions fail.
Every update request consists of zero or more prerequisites and zero or
more updates. This allows a suitably authenticated update request to
proceed if some specified resource records are present or missing from
the zone. A blank input line (or the send command) causes the accumu-
lated commands to be sent as one Dynamic DNS update request to the name
server.
The command formats and their meaning are as follows:
server servername [ port ]
Sends all dynamic update requests to the name server servername.
When no server statement is provided, nsupdate will send updates
to the master server of the correct zone. The MNAME field of
that zone's SOA record will identify the master server for that
zone. port is the port number on servername where the dynamic
update requests get sent. If no port number is specified, the
default DNS port number of 53 is used.
local address [ port ]
Sends all dynamic update requests using the local address. When
no local statement is provided, nsupdate will send updates using
an address and port choosen by the system. port can addition-
ally be used to make requests come from a specific port. If no
port number is specified, the system will assign one.
zone zonename
Specifies that all updates are to be made to the zone zonename.
If no zone statement is provided, nsupdate will attempt deter-
mine the correct zone to update based on the rest of the input.
key name secret
Specifies that all updates are to be TSIG signed using the key-
name keysecret pair. The key command overrides any key speci-
fied on the command line via -y or -k.
prereq nxdomain domain-name
Requires that no resource record of any type exists with name
domain-name.
prereq yxdomain domain-name
Requires that domain-name exists (has as at least one resource
record, of any type).
prereq nxrrset domain-name [ class ] type
Requires that no resource record exists of the specified type,
class and domain-name. If class is omitted, IN (internet) is
assumed.
prereq yxrrset domain-name [ class ] type
This requires that a resource record of the specified type,
class and domain-name must exist. If class is omitted, IN
(internet) is assumed.
prereq yxrrset domain-name [ class ] type data...
The data from each set of prerequisites of this form sharing a
common type, class, and domain-name are combined to form a set
of RRs. This set of RRs must exactly match the set of RRs exist-
ing in the zone at the given type, class, and domain-name. The
data are written in the standard text representation of the
resource record's RDATA.
update delete domain-name [ ttl ] [ class ] [ type [ data... ] ]
Deletes any resource records named domain-name. If type and
data is provided, only matching resource records will be
removed. The internet class is assumed if class is not sup-
plied. The ttl is ignored, and is only allowed for compatibil-
ity.
update add domain-name ttl [ class ] type data...
Adds a new resource record with the specified ttl, class and
data.
show Displays the current message, containing all of the prerequi-
sites and updates specified since the last send.
send Sends the current message. This is equivalent to entering a
blank line.
Lines beginning with a semicolon are comments, and are ignored.
EXAMPLES
The examples below show how nsupdate could be used to insert and delete
resource records from the example.com zone. Notice that the input in
each example contains a trailing blank line so that a group of commands
are sent as one dynamic update request to the master name server for
example.com.
# nsupdate
> update delete oldhost.example.com A
> update add newhost.example.com 86400 A 172.16.1.1
>
Any A records for oldhost.example.com are deleted. and an A record for
newhost.example.com it IP address 172.16.1.1 is added. The newly-added
record has a 1 day TTL (86400 seconds)
# nsupdate
> prereq nxdomain nickname.example.com
> update add nickname.example.com 86400 CNAME somehost.example.com
>
The prerequisite condition gets the name server to check that there are
no resource records of any type for nickname.example.com. If there
are, the update request fails. If this name does not exist, a CNAME
for it is added. This ensures that when the CNAME is added, it cannot
conflict with the long-standing rule in RFC1034 that a name must not
exist as any other record type if it exists as a CNAME. (The rule has
been updated for DNSSEC in RFC2535 to allow CNAMEs to have SIG, KEY and
NXT records.)
FILES
/etc/resolv.conf
used to identify default name server
K{name}.+157.+{random}.key
base-64 encoding of HMAC-MD5 key created by dnssec-keygen(8).
K{name}.+157.+{random}.private
base-64 encoding of HMAC-MD5 key created by dnssec-keygen(8).
SEE ALSO
RFC2136, RFC3007, RFC2104, RFC2845, RFC1034, RFC2535, named(8), dnssec-
keygen(8).
BUGS
The TSIG key is redundantly stored in two separate files. This is a
consequence of nsupdate using the DST library for its cryptographic
operations, and may change in future releases.
BIND9 Jun 30, 2000 NSUPDATE(8)
