dotat nsnotifyd: scripted DNS NOTIFY handler

NSNOTIFY(1) General Commands Manual (dns commands manual) NSNOTIFY(1)

nsnotify — send DNS NOTIFY messages

nsnotify [-46dtV] [-s addr] [-p port] ⟨zone⟩ ⟨target⟩...

nsnotify [-46dtV] [-s addr] [-p port] -F zones ⟨target⟩...

nsnotify [-46dtV] [-s addr] [-p port] -f targets ⟨zones⟩...

nsnotify [-46dtV] [-s addr] [-p port] -F zones -f targets

The nsnotify program sends DNS NOTIFY messages for a list of zones to a list of targets. You can either provide a list of targets on the command line, or use the -f targets option to read from a file. To send a notifications about more than one zone, you can use the -F zones option to read from a file.

The following commands have a similar effect:

nsnotify -p 53 example.net ::1
dig +opcode=notify -t soa -p 53 example.net @::1

The nsnotify command is quieter than dig by default. It is more convenient to notify multiple servers with nsnotify than with dig.

Note: nsnotify (without ‘d’) is a client for sending DNS NOTIFY messages whereas nsnotifyd (with ‘d’) is a daemon for handling DNS NOTIFY messages.

Use IPv4 only (apart from the system resolver).
Use IPv6 only (apart from the system resolver).
Debugging mode.

Use once to print successful message sends.

Use twice to get dumps of DNS packets.

zones
File containing list of zones to send NOTIFY messages about. There must be one domain name per line, with no comments or extra white space.
targets
File containing list of addresses to send NOTIFY messages to. There must be one target address per line, with no comments or extra white space.

If targets is ‘-’ then the addresses are read from stdin.

port
Connect to port, which may be a service name or a port number. The default is the service, port 53.
addr
Send NOTIFY messages from a specific source IP address.
Make TCP connections instead of using UDP.
Print details about this version of nsnotify.

nsnotifyd(1)

Tony Finch ⟨dot@dotat.at⟩

February 24, 2026 DNS