BIND () is a suite of software for interacting with the
Domain Name System
The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed naming system for computers, services, and other resources in the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information with domain names assigned ...
(DNS). Its most prominent component, named (pronounced ''name-dee'': , short for ''name
daemon''), performs both of the main DNS server roles, acting as an
authoritative name server for
DNS zones and as a recursive
resolver in the network. As of 2015, it is the most widely used domain name server software, and is the
''de facto'' standard on
Unix-like
A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X or *nix) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Unix-li ...
operating systems. Also contained in the suite are various administration tools such as
nsupdate and
dig, and a DNS resolver interface library.
The software was originally designed at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
(UCB) in the early 1980s. The name originates as an acronym of ''Berkeley Internet Name Domain'',
reflecting the application's use within UCB. The latest version is BIND 9, first released in 2000 and still actively maintained by the
Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) with new releases issued several times a year.
Key features
BIND 9 is intended to be fully compliant with th
IETF DNS standards and draft standards Important features of BIND 9 include:
TSIG,
nsupdate,
IPv6
Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the most recent version of the Internet Protocol (IP), the communications protocol that provides an identification a