BIND 9 syntax error near '<quoted string>'

[Roy Arends]

On Fri, 23 Mar 2001, Przybycien, John wrote:

> I'm running BIND 9.1.1rc4 on a Sun with Solaris 8
> and receive the following in /var/adm/messages.
> 
> /etc/name.conf:2:  syntax error near '<quoted string>'
> rndc: /etc/name.conf: failure
> 
> Here's the first few lines of name.conf:
> 
> options {
>            directory "/etc";
>            allow-transfer { none; };
>            auth-nxdomain yes;
>            };
> 
> I've tried recreating the name.conf file, using spaces instead of tabs to
> indent,
> changing the order of the options, etc.  BTW, changing the order always
> returns
> an error with /etc/name.conf:2:  The following is returned if I switch lines
> 2 and 3:
> 
> /etc/name.conf:2:  syntax error near '{'
> rndc: /etc/name.conf: failure
> 
> Any ideas?

If you use rndc, then you have to use rndc.conf, do not use the config
file for your nameserver (named.conf or name.conf). The entry in the .conf
file where rndc stumbles is directory "/etc"; an unknown option to
rndc. (the other 2 options as well).

man rndc.conf

Regards,

Roy Arends
Nominum