Linux.com: A Guide to Named Nov 14, 1999, 00 :47 UTC (0 Talkback[s]) (4007 reads) (Other stories by Eric Warmenhoven)
"DNS, the domain naming service, is what computers use to translate domain names, such as linux.com, to an IP address, such as
216.200.201.193. In Linux, the name server is called 'named', runs in the background and is usually started when the computer is
turned on. Named is part of the Berkeley Internet Naming Daemon, 'bind', a collection of tools to resolve domain names."
"In order for named to work correctly, it needs to read the file /etc/named.conf and determine where to get certain information from.
The first section in the file is the options section, which indicates any options that named should use. This is where you tell named
the directory where files it needs are. The next sections are to tell named when to use which file. These are defined in "zones...."
"To continue to use your name server, you will occasionally have to update your root.hints file. You can do this by querying other
name servers with the command 'dig' as we did above."
