DNS BIND9 logging Clause

This section describes the logging clause which prior to BIND 9 needed to appear first in the named.conf file. This no longer the case and it may appear anywhere convenient. BIND uses syslogd before a valid logging clause is available so named.conf parse errors and other information will appear in /var/log/messages (depending on syslog.conf) prior to, or in the absence of, a valid logging clause. In the case of windows parse errors are written to the Event Log. Only one logging clause can be defined but multiple channels may be defined to stream logs.

logging Clause Syntax

BIND provides comprehensive logging features. Values in bold type below are keywords;

logging {
   [ channel channel_name {
     ( file path name
         [ versions ( number | unlimited ) ]
         [ size size_spec ]
       | syslog syslog_facility
       | stderr
       | null );
     [ severity (critical | error | warning | notice |
                 info | debug [ level ] | dynamic ); ]
     [ print-category yes | no; ]
     [ print-severity yes | no; ]
     [ print-time yes | no; ]
   }; ]
   [ category category_name {
     channel_name ; [ channel_name ; ... ]
   }; ]
   ...
};

The following notes describe the various fields and values:

Examples

The first example shows a minimal logging configuration that will work and generate modest log volumes.

logging{
  channel simple_log {
    file "/var/log/named/bind.log" versions 3 size 5m;
    severity warning;
    print-time yes;
    print-severity yes;
    print-category yes;
  };
  category default{
    simple_log;
  };
};

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