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NSUPDATE(1)                                    BIND 9                                    NSUPDATE(1)



NAME
       nsupdate - dynamic DNS update utility

SYNOPSIS
       nsupdate  [-d]  [-D]  [-i] [-L level] [ [-g] | [-o] | [-l] | [-y [hmac:]keyname:secret] | [-k
       keyfile] ] [-t timeout] [-u udptimeout] [-r udpretries] [-v] [-T] [-P] [-V] [ [-4] |  [-6]  ]
       [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 must be in the same
       zone. Requests are sent to the zone's primary server, which is identified by the MNAME  field
       of the zone's SOA record.

       Transaction  signatures  can  be  used to authenticate the Dynamic DNS updates. These use the
       TSIG resource record type described in RFC 2845, 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. For
       instance, suitable key and server statements are added to /etc/bind/named.conf  so  that  the
       name server can associate the appropriate secret key and algorithm with the IP address of the
       client application that is using TSIG authentication. ddns-confgen can generate suitable con‐
       figuration  fragments.  nsupdate uses the -y or -k options to provide the TSIG shared secret;
       these options are mutually exclusive.

       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.

       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.

OPTIONS
       -4     This option sets use of IPv4 only.

       -6     This option sets use of IPv6 only.

       -C     Overrides the default resolv.conf file. This is only intended for testing.

       -d     This  option  sets debug mode, which provides tracing information about the update re‐
              quests that are made and the replies received from the name server.

       -D     This option sets extra debug mode.

       -g     This option enables standard GSS-TSIG mode.

       -i     This option forces interactive mode, even when standard input is not a terminal.

       -k keyfile
              This option indicates the file containing the TSIG authentication key. 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 option can 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.

       -l     This option sets local-host only mode, which sets  the  server  address  to  localhost
              (disabling the server so that the server address cannot be overridden). Connections to
              the local server use a TSIG key found in /run/session.key, which is automatically gen‐
              erated by named if any local primary zone has set update-policy to local. The location
              of this key file can be overridden with the -k option.

       -L level
              This option sets the logging debug level. If zero, logging is disabled.

       -o     This option enables a non-standards-compliant variant  of  GSS-TSIG  used  by  Windows
              2000.

       -p port
              This option sets the port to use for connections to a name server. The default is 53.

       -P     This  option prints the list of private BIND-specific resource record types whose for‐
              mat is understood by nsupdate. See also the -T option.

       -r udpretries
              This option sets the number of UDP retries. The default is 3. If zero, only one update
              request is made.

       -t timeout
              This option sets the maximum time an update request can take before it is aborted. The
              default is 300 seconds. If zero, the timeout is disabled for TCP mode. For  UDP  mode,
              the  option -u takes precedence over this option, unless the option -u is set to zero,
              in which case the interval is computed from the -t timeout interval and the number  of
              UDP  retries. For UDP mode, the timeout can not be disabled, and will be rounded up to
              1 second in case if both -t and -u are set to zero.

       -T     This option prints the list of IANA standard resource record types whose format is un‐
              derstood by nsupdate. nsupdate exits after the lists are printed. The -T option can be
              combined with the -P option.

              Other types can be entered using TYPEXXXXX where XXXXX is the  decimal  value  of  the
              type  with  no leading zeros. The rdata, if present, is parsed using the UNKNOWN rdata
              format, (<backslash> <hash> <space> <length> <space> <hexstring>).

       -u udptimeout
              This option sets the UDP retry interval. The default is 3 seconds. If zero, the inter‐
              val is computed from the timeout interval and number of UDP retries.

       -v     This  option  specifies that TCP should be used even for small update requests. By de‐
              fault, 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 is used. TCP may be preferable
              when a batch of update requests is made.

       -V     This option prints the version number and exits.

       -y [hmac:]keyname:secret
              This option sets the literal TSIG authentication key. keyname is the name of the  key,
              and secret is the base64 encoded shared secret. hmac is the name of the key algorithm;
              valid choices are  hmac-md5,  hmac-sha1,  hmac-sha224,  hmac-sha256,  hmac-sha384,  or
              hmac-sha512.  If  hmac  is  not specified, the default is hmac-md5, or if MD5 was dis‐
              abled, hmac-sha256.

              NOTE: 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 ps1 or in
              a history file maintained by the user's shell.

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; others are either update in‐
       structions 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 are 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  either 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 meanings are as follows:

       server servername port
              This command sends all dynamic update requests to the name server servername.  When no
              server statement is provided, nsupdate sends updates to the primary server of the cor‐
              rect zone. The MNAME field of that zone's SOA record identify the primary  server  for
              that  zone.   port  is the port number on servername where the dynamic update requests
              are sent. If no port number is specified, the default DNS port number of 53 is used.

              NOTE:
                 This command has no effect when GSS-TSIG is in use.

       local address port
              This command sends all dynamic update requests using the local address. When no  local
              statement  is provided, nsupdate sends updates using an address and port chosen by the
              system. port can also be used to force requests to come from a specific  port.  If  no
              port number is specified, the system assigns one.

       zone zonename
              This  command  specifies  that all updates are to be made to the zone zonename.  If no
              zone statement is provided, nsupdate attempts to determine the correct zone to  update
              based on the rest of the input.

       class classname
              This  command specifies the default class. If no class is specified, the default class
              is IN.

       ttl seconds
              This command specifies the default time-to-live, in seconds, for records to be  added.
              The value none clears the default TTL.

       key hmac:keyname secret
              This command specifies that all updates are to be TSIG-signed using the keyname-secret
              pair. If hmac is specified, it sets the signing  algorithm  in  use.  The  default  is
              hmac-md5;  if  MD5 was disabled, the default is hmac-sha256. The key command overrides
              any key specified on the command line via -y or -k.

       gsstsig
              This command uses GSS-TSIG to sign the updates. This is equivalent to specifying -g on
              the command line.

       oldgsstsig
              This  command  uses  the Windows 2000 version of GSS-TSIG to sign the updates. This is
              equivalent to specifying -o on the command line.

       realm [realm_name]
              When using GSS-TSIG, this command specifies the use of realm_name rather than the  de‐
              fault realm in krb5.conf. If no realm is specified, the saved realm is cleared.

       check-names [boolean]
              This  command  turns  on  or  off  check-names  processing  on  records  to  be added.
              Check-names has no effect on prerequisites or  records  to  be  deleted.   By  default
              check-names processing is on. If check-names processing fails, the record is not added
              to the UPDATE message.

       prereq nxdomain domain-name
              This command requires that no resource record of any type  exist  with  the  name  do‐‐
              main-name.

       prereq yxdomain domain-name
              This  command requires that domain-name exist (as at least one resource record, of any
              type).

       prereq nxrrset domain-name class type
              This command requires that no resource record exist of the specified type, class,  and
              domain-name. If class is omitted, IN (Internet) is assumed.

       prereq yxrrset domain-name class type
              This  command  requires  that  a  resource record of the specified type, class and do‐‐
              main-name exist. If class is omitted, IN (internet) is assumed.

       prereq yxrrset domain-name class type data
              With this command, the data from each set of prerequisites of this form sharing a com‐
              mon  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
              This command deletes any resource records named domain-name. If type and data are pro‐
              vided,  only  matching resource records are 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
              This command adds a new resource record with the specified ttl, class, and data.

       show   This command displays the current message, containing all of the prerequisites and up‐
              dates specified since the last send.

       send   This command sends the current message. This is equivalent to entering a blank line.

       answer This command displays the answer.

       debug  This command turns on debugging.

       version
              This command prints the version number.

       help   This command prints a list of commands.

       Lines beginning with a semicolon (;) are comments and are ignored.

EXAMPLES
       The  examples  below show how nsupdate can 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 is sent as one dynamic update request to the primary 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 TTL of 1 day (86400 sec‐
       onds).

          # nsupdate
          > prereq nxdomain nickname.example.com
          > update add nickname.example.com 86400 CNAME somehost.example.com
          > send

       The prerequisite condition tells the name server to verify 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 al‐
       low CNAMEs to have RRSIG, DNSKEY, and NSEC records.)

FILES
       /etc/resolv.conf
              Used to identify the default name server

       /run/session.key
              Sets the default TSIG key for use in local-only mode

       K{name}.+157.+{random}.key
              Base-64 encoding of the HMAC-MD5 key created by dnssec-keygen.

       K{name}.+157.+{random}.private
              Base-64 encoding of the HMAC-MD5 key created by dnssec-keygen.

SEE ALSO
       RFC  2136,  RFC 3007, RFC 2104, RFC 2845, RFC 1034, RFC 2535, RFC 2931, named(8), dnssec-key‐‐
       gen(8), tsig-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.

AUTHOR
       Internet Systems Consortium

COPYRIGHT
       2026, Internet Systems Consortium




9.18.39-0ubuntu0.22.04.4-Ubuntu              2025-08-13                                  NSUPDATE(1)
nsupdate
NAME SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION OPTIONS
-4 This option sets use of IPv4 only. -6 This option sets use of IPv6 only. -C Overrides the default resolv.conf file. This is only intended for testing. -d This option sets debug mode, which provides tracing information about the update re‐ -D This option sets extra debug mode. -g This option enables standard GSS-TSIG mode. -i This option forces interactive mode, even when standard input is not a terminal. -k keyfile -l This option sets local-host only mode, which sets the server address to localhost -L level -o This option enables a non-standards-compliant variant of GSS-TSIG used by Windows -p port -P This option prints the list of private BIND-specific resource record types whose for‐ -r udpretries -t timeout -T This option prints the list of IANA standard resource record types whose format is un‐ -u udptimeout -v This option specifies that TCP should be used even for small update requests. By de‐ -V This option prints the version number and exits. -y [hmac:]keyname:secret
INPUT FORMAT
server servername port local address port zone zonename class classname ttl seconds key hmac:keyname secret gsstsig oldgsstsig check-names [boolean] prereq nxdomain domain-name prereq yxdomain domain-name prereq nxrrset domain-name class type prereq yxrrset domain-name class type prereq yxrrset domain-name class type data update delete domain-name ttl class type data update add domain-name ttl class type data version
EXAMPLES FILES
/etc/resolv.conf /run/session.key K{name}.+157.+{random}.key K{name}.+157.+{random}.private
SEE ALSO BUGS AUTHOR COPYRIGHT

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