NSUPDATE(8) BIND9 NSUPDATE(8)
NAME
nsupdate - Dynamic DNS update utility
SYNOPSIS
nsupdate [-d] [[-y [hmac:]keyname:secret] | [-k keyfile]] [-t timeout] [-u udptimeout]
[-r udpretries] [-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 nsupdate have to be in the same zone.
Requests are sent to the zone's master 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 or the SIG(0) record described in RFC3535 and RFC2931. TSIG
relies 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 authenticating 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. SIG(0) uses public key cryptography. To use a SIG(0) key, the public key must be
stored in a KEY record in a zone served by the name server. 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, default type HMAC-MD5. 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 [hmac:]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 supplied 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.
The -k may also be used to specify a SIG(0) key used to authenticate Dynamic DNS update requests. In
this case, the key specified is not an HMAC-MD5 key.
By default nsupdate uses UDP to send update requests to the name server unless they are too large to
fit in a UDP request in which case TCP will be used. The -v option makes nsupdate use a TCP
connection. This may be preferable when a batch of update requests is made.
The -t option sets the maximum time a update request can take before it is aborted. The default is
300 seconds. Zero can be used to disable the timeout.
The -u option sets the UDP retry interval. The default is 3 seconds. If zero the interval will be
computed from the timeout interval and number of UDP retries.
The -r option sets the number of UDP retries. The default is 3. If zero only one update request will
be 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 administrative purposes. The others are either update instructions or
prerequisite 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 accumulated 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 chosen by the system. port can additionally
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 determine the correct zone to update based on the rest of the input.
class {classname}
Specify the default class. If no class is specified the default class is IN.
key {name} {secret}
Specifies that all updates are to be TSIG signed using the keyname keysecret pair. The key
command overrides any key specified 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
existing 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 supplied. The ttl
is ignored, and is only allowed for compatibility.
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 prerequisites and updates specified since the
last send.
send
Sends the current message. This is equivalent to entering a blank line.
answer
Displays the answer.
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
> send
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
> send
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 RRSIG, DNSKEY and
NSEC 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(), RFC2931(), 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.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2004-2007 Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. ("ISC")
Copyright (C) 2000-2003 Internet Software Consortium.
BIND9 Jun 30, 2000 NSUPDATE(8)
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