@(#) INSTALL 1.1 98/12/21 @(#)

Installing the Updathosts System

After unpacking the system run the configure script in the directory.
This will try and determine some systewm defaults and the location of
various programs.  You must have perl5 installed for this package to
work.  The configure script will complain if it is not installed.

Then type

make

to make the binaries followed by

make install

to install the executable files.

At this point you will need to create two configuration files -
updatehosts.env and poke_ns.env.  Templates of these files are found in
the source directory.  Modify them as needed for your particular system
configuration.

poke_ns.env sets a few system specific parameters for the poke_ns
utility.  poke_ns needs the pathname to the named binary
plus the location of the named.pid file and the location of the debug
output and the dump file for named.  poke_ns is installed setuid to
root, but only executable by its group.  The default group is staff.
This can be changed to suit your local requirements.  The group execute
privilege lets the nameserver system be administered by any user in the
specific group without needing root privilege.

updatehosts.env sets system parameters which drive the zone file and
bootstrap file creation process.  See the example in this directory
for typical setting.

You should also create a symlink from /etc/named.boot for V4 BIND or
/etc/named.conf for V8 bind to the boot file by the same name in the zone
file directory (shown as /var/named in the example).

The zone file directory should be group writable.  This allows users
in the group to manage the nameserver files.  You may also have the
input relations kept under SCCS or RCS control by setting the
appropriate parameter in the updatehosts.env file to "yes".  The
initial zone files should be created under the appropriate source
control system first.  Also the SCCS or RCS commands must be in the DNS
administrators path.

Both poke_ns.env and updatehosts.env are installed in the binary
installation directory set during the configuration process.  The
default is /usr/local/bin.  They should be only writable by root.
poke_ns checks to insure the poke_ns.env file is only writable by root
to prevent unauthorized users from gaining root access by altering the
environment file.

If you do not wish to enable group access, you can, of course,
disable it and manage the DNS files under the root user or under an
alternate userid.

The script

installb.pl

will install empty template files for the system in the database
directory (default is /var/named/db).  If you have existing zone files
you can use the cvtzone.pl script to convert the zone files to
relational format.  This script should do most of the necessary work,
but it has not been extensively tested, so the output may need to be
edited.  If you have a static host table in /etc/hosts format, the
cvtstatic.pl script may be useful in converting existing host data.

Once you have the relational files installed, you can test the system
by running:

updatehosts -v

The -v option will give you extra debugging output.  Besides it is fun
to watch the system do its work.  At this point you can then start the
nameserver.  Once you install the initial zone files, the updatehosts
script will automatically restart the nameserver.

See the file OVERVIEW for a tutorial on the use of the system.
