HP-UX Reference (11i v1 05/09) - 1 User Commands N-Z (vol 2)

n
nsupdate(1) nsupdate(1)
NAME
nsupdate - Dynamic DNS update utility
SYNOPSIS
nsupdate [-d][-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.
Options
-d This 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.
-v This option makes nsupdate use a TCP connection to send update requests to the name
server. By default nsupdate uses UDP to send update requests. This may be preferable
when a batch of update requests is made.
filename This option makes nsupdate read the update requests and entries from the file given by
filename instead of from the command line. Data in the file must contain one entry per
line. A blank line causes the accumulated records to be formatted into a single update
request and transmitted to the zone’s authoritative name servers.
Additional records may follow, which are formed into additional, completely independent
update requests. For the last request to be transmitted, the entry must be followed by a
blank line.
Input Format
nsupdate reads commands from its standard input unless a file name is specified explicitly. Each com-
mand is supplied on exactly one line of input. Some commands are for administrative purposes. The oth-
ers are either update instructions or prerequisite checks on the contents of the zone. These checks set con-
ditions 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.
To come out of nsupdate prompt, the user has to type CtrlˆD on the standard input.
Every update request consists of zero or more prerequisites and zero or more updates. This allows a suit-
ably authenticated update request to proceed if some specified resource records are present or missing from
the zone. A blank input line 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.
zone zonename
Specifies that all updates are to be made to the zone zonename.Ifnozone state-
ment is provided, nsupdate will attempt determine the correct zone to update
based on the rest of the input.
prereq nxdomain domain-name
Requires that no resource record of any type exists with name domain-name.
HP-UX 11i Version 1: September 2005 − 1 − Hewlett-Packard Company Section 1−−665