DLINT(1) DLINT(1)
18 July 1998
NAME
dlint - Internet Domain Name System (DNS) error checking utility
SYNOPSIS
dlint [ -n ] zone
DESCRIPTION
DNS administrators can use dlint to scan recursively through the
domain records of the fully-qualified zone zone, to get a report on
any errors therein. You can scan a zone you own, or anyone else's
zone on the Internet. dlint talks directly to a primary or secondary
nameserver for the zone, to make sure it's working with up-to-date
information. dlint also suggests ways of fixing problems instead of
just complaining about them like other debugging tools. The argument
zone should always have an ending period to indicate it is a fully
qualified domain name.
OPTIONS
By default, dlint recursively traverses the entire hierarchy below the
zone specified. The -n option may be used to disable recursive
traversal, causing it to only examine the records in the given zone.
Note that a zone may or may not contain any number of sub-domains (all
of which will be checked with or without this option).
EXAMPLES
example% dlint nau.edu. recursively scans the DNS records in zone
nau.edu for problems.
example% dlint 64.114.134.in-addr.arpa. recursively scans the DNS
records associated with IP subnet 134.114.64.0 for problems. You
had to already know that 134.114.0.0 was subnetted.
DIAGNOSTICS
The output from dlint is computer parsable, each line has a special
meaning. Lines beginning with a semicolon (;) are comments only.
Lines beginning with the phrase ``WARNING'' are useful information
that you should consider. A warning is not necessarily an error, but
may be a problem that you should consider. Lines beginning with the
phrase ``ERROR'' are definite errors and should be dealt with
accordingly.
EXIT STATUS
0 Successful run, no problems encountered with zone.
1 Successful run, worst problem with zone was a WARNING.
2 Successful run, worst problem with zone was an ERROR.
3 Usage error.
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DLINT(1) DLINT(1)
18 July 1998
4 A signal interrupted the program run (i.e. user typed interrupt
key sequence).
BUGS
Dlint doesn't work behind some firewalls because it needs to talk to a
root nameserver to get started. Dlint uses the zone transfer
mechanism (AXFR) which some nameservers deny to unauthorized hosts.
Other nameservers happily return zero records instead of an error, in
response to an unauthorized AXFR! That is just wrong.
AUTHOR
Paul Balyoz <pab@domtools.com>
DISTRIBUTION
http://www.domtools.com/dns/#Dlint
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 1993-1998 Paul A. Balyoz <pab@domtools.com> This program
is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope
that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You
should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
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