NAME¶

pdns_control - Control the PowerDNS nameserver

SYNOPSIS¶

pdns_control [OPTION]... COMMAND

DESCRIPTION¶

pdns_control is used to send commands to a running PowerDNS nameserver.

OPTIONS¶

--help

Show summary of options.

--chroot=DIR

Directory where PowerDNS is chrooted.

--config-dir=DIR

Location of configuration directory (pdns.conf).

--config-name=NAME

Name of this virtual configuration - will rename the binary image.

--remote-address=ADDRESS

Remote address to query.

--remote-port=PORT

Remote port to query.

--secret=SECRET

Secret needed to connect to remote PowerDNS.

--socket-dir=DIR

Where the controlsocket lives.

COMMANDS¶

bind-add-zone DOMAIN FILENAME

When using the bindbackend, add a zone. This zone is added in-memory and served immediately. Note that this does not add the zone to the bind-config file. FILENAME must be an absolute path.

bind-domain-status [DOMAIN...]

When using the bindbackend, list status of all domains. Optionally, append DOMAINs to get the status of specific zones.

bind-list-rejects

When using the bindbackend, get a list of all rejected domains.

bind-reload-now DOMAIN [DOMAIN...]

When using the bindbackend, immediately reload DOMAIN from disk.

ccounts

Show the content of the cache.

current-config

Show the currently running configuration. The output has the same format as pdns_server --config. You'll notice that all the are uncommented. This is because PowerDNS simply has values, and the default isn't known at runtime.

cycle

Restart the nameserver so it reloads its configuration. Only works when the server is running in guardian mode.

list

Dump all variables and their values in a comma separated list, equivalent to show *.

list-zones [master,slave,native]

Show a list of zones, optionally filter on the type of zones to show.

notify DOMAIN

Adds DOMAIN to the notification list, causing PowerDNS to send out notifications to the nameservers of a domain. Can be used if a slave missed previous notifications or is generally hard of hearing.

notify-host DOMAIN ADDRESS

Same as above but with operator specified IP ADDRESS as destination, to be used if you know better than PowerDNS.

ping, rping

Check if the server is still alive. Will return 'PONG' when it is. ping works when running inside a guardian, whereas rping works when running without a guardian.

purge [RECORD]

Purge entries from the cache. If RECORD ends with a dollar ($) all entries that end with that name are removed. If no record is specified the entire cache is purged.

qtypes

Get a count of queries per qtype on standard out.

quit

Tell a running pdns_server to quit.

rediscover

Instructs backends that new domains may have appeared in the database, or, in the case of the Bind backend, in named.conf.

reload

Instruct the server to reload all its zones, this will not add new zones.

remotes

Get the top number of remote addresses (clients).

respsizes

Get a histogram of the response sizes.

retrieve DOMAIN

Retrieve slave DOMAIN from its master. Done nearly immediately.

set VARIABLE VALUE

Set the configuration parameter VARIABLE to VALUE. Currently only the query-logging can be set.

show VARIABLE

Show a single statistic, as present in the output of the list command.

status

Show usage statistics. This only works if the server is running in guardian mode.

token-login MODULE SLOT PIN

Log on to a PKCS#11 slot. You only need to login once per slot, even if you have multiple keys on single slot. Only available if PowerDNS was compiled with PKCS#11 support.

uptime

Show the uptime of the running server.

version

Print the version of the running pdns daemon.

SEE ALSO¶

pdns_server(1)

AUTHORS¶

PowerDNS.com BV.