NAME
nsupdate - Dynamic DNS update utility
SYNOPSIS
nsupdate [-d] [-D] [[-g] | [-o] | [-l] | [-y [hmac:]keyname:secret] |
[-k keyfile]] [-t timeout] [-u udptimeout] [-r udpretries]
[-R randomdev] [-v] [filename]
DESCRIPTION
nsupdate is used to submit Dynamic DNS Update requests as defined in
RFC 2136 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.
The -D option makes nsupdate report additional debugging information to
-d.
The -L option with an integer argument of zero or higher sets the
logging debug level. If zero, logging is disabled.
Transaction signatures can be used to authenticate the Dynamic DNS
updates. These use the TSIG resource record type described in RFC 2845
or the SIG(0) record described in RFC 2535 and RFC 2931 or GSS-TSIG as
described in RFC 3645. 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.
GSS-TSIG uses Kerberos credentials. Standard GSS-TSIG mode is switched
on with the -g flag. A non-standards-compliant variant of GSS-TSIG used
by Windows 2000 can be switched on with the -o flag.
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.
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.
With the -k option, nsupdate reads the shared secret from the file
keyfile. Keyfiles may be in two formats: a single file containing a
named.conf-format key statement, which may be generated automatically
by ddns-confgen, or a pair of files whose names are of the format
K{name}.+157.+{random}.key and K{name}.+157.+{random}.private, which
can be generated by dnssec-keygen. 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.
nsupdate can be run in a local-host only mode using the -l flag. This
sets the server address to localhost (disabling the server so that the
server address cannot be overridden). Connections to the local server
will use a TSIG key found in /var/run/named/session.key, which is
automatically generated by named if any local master zone has set
update-policy to local. The location of this key file can be overridden
with the -k option.
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 -p sets the default port number to use for connections to a name
server. The default is 53.
The -t option sets the maximum time an 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.
The -R randomdev option specifies a source of randomness. If the
operating system does not provide a /dev/random or equivalent device,
the default source of randomness is keyboard input. randomdev
specifies the name of a character device or file containing random data
to be used instead of the default. The special value keyboard indicates
that keyboard input should be used. This option may be specified
multiple times.
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.
ttl {seconds}
Specify the default time to live for records to be added. The value
none will clear the default ttl.
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.
debug
Turn on debugging.
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 with 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 RFC 1034 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 RFC 2535 to allow CNAMEs to have RRSIG, DNSKEY
and NSEC records.)
FILES
/etc/resolv.conf
used to identify default name server
/var/run/named/session.key
sets the default TSIG key for use in local-only mode
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
RFC 2136, RFC 3007, RFC 2104, RFC 2845, RFC 1034, RFC 2535, RFC 2931,
named(8), ddns-confgen(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) 2004-2009 Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. ("ISC")
Copyright (C) 2000-2003 Internet Software Consortium.