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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.   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.

       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/

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.

                                 18 July 1998