zone domain_name [ ( in | hs | hesiod | chaos ) ] { 
  type master;
  file path_name;
  [ check-names ( warn | fail | ignore ); ]
  [ allow-update { address_match_list }; ]
  [ allow-query { address_match_list }; ]
  [ allow-transfer { address_match_list }; ]
  [ notify yes_or_no; ]
  [ also-notify { ip_addr; [ ip_addr; ... ] };
};

zone domain_name [ ( in | hs | hesiod | chaos ) ] { 
  type ( slave | stub );
  [ file path_name; ]
  masters { ip_addr; [ ip_addr; ... ] };
  [ check-names ( warn | fail | ignore ); ]
  [ allow-update { address_match_list }; ]
  [ allow-query { address_match_list }; ]
  [ allow-transfer { address_match_list }; ]
  [ max-transfer-time-in number; ]
  [ notify yes_or_no; ]
  [ also-notify { ip_addr; [ ip_addr; ... ] };
};

zone "." [ ( in | hs | hesiod | chaos ) ] { 
  type hint;
  file path_name;
  [ check-names ( warn | fail | ignore ); ]
};

Zone Types

master

The master copy of the data in a zone.

slave

A slave zone is a replica of a master zone. The masters list specifies one or more IP addresses that the slave contacts to update its copy of the zone. If file is specified, then the replica will be written to the file. Use of file is recommended, since it often speeds server startup and eliminates a needless waste of bandwidth.

stub

A stub zone is like a slave zone, except that it replicates only the NS records of a master zone instead of the entire zone.

hint

The initial set of root nameservers is specified using a hint zone. When the server starts up, it uses the root hints to find a root nameserver and get the most recent list of root nameservers.

Note: previous releases of BIND used the term primary for a master zone, secondary for a slave zone, and cache for a hint zone.

Class

The zone's name may optionally be followed by a class. If a class is not specified, class in is used.

Options

check-names

See Name Checking.

allow-query

See the description of allow-query in the Access Control section.

allow-update

Specifies which hosts are allowed to submit Dynamic DNS updates to the server. The default is to deny updates from all hosts.

allow-transfer

See the description of allow-transfer in the Access Control section.

max-transfer-time-in

See the description of max-transfer-time-in in the Zone Transfers section.

notify

See the description of notify in the Boolean Options section.

also-notify

also-notify is only meaningful if notify is active for this zone. The set of machines that will receive a DNS NOTIFY message for this zone is made up of all the listed nameservers for the zone (other than the primary master) plus any IP addresses specified with also-notify. also-notify is not meaningful for stub zones. The default is the empty list.