Add a man page, and add a description to the cabal file.

[haeredes.git] / doc / man1 / haeredes.1

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+.TH haeredes 1
+
+.SH NAME
+haeredes \- Confirm delegation of NS and MX records.
+.SH SYNOPSIS
+
+\fBhaeredes\fR [\fIOPTIONS\fR] [\fIDELEGATES\fR]
+.SH INPUT
+.P
+A list of domains, separated by whitespace.
+.SH OUTPUT
+.P
+A list of domains which don't have the supplied (expected) delegates
+listed as their NS/MX records.
+.SH DESCRIPTION
+.P
+Haeredes is primarily useful for ISP network administrators. Customers
+will occasionally decide to switch hosts without alerting the current
+host; this can cause two problems.
+.P
+With NS records, the previous host (at the very least) keeps hosting a
+DNS zone that does nothing. If that host uses their authoritative
+nameserver as a caching lookup server as well, it may return
+incorrect results to queries about the domain in question.
+.P
+For MX records, the situation is slightly worse. Most mail servers
+will immediately accept mail for which the server thinks it is the
+ultimate destination. If a mail server is configured as the
+destination for a domain, but it is not the MX for that domain, then
+mail submitted to that server may possibly be lost. It is therefore
+important to remove domains from the old mail host as soon as the MX
+record is changed.
+.P
+Haeredes can alert administrators when NS/MX records are changed.
+.SH OPTIONS
+
+.IP \fB\-\-server\fR,\ \fB-s\fR
+Use the given DNS server rather than the resolvers listed in
+/etc/resolv.conf.
+.SH EXAMPLES
+
+.IP \[bu] 2
+Make sure example.com has the expected name servers,
+[ab].iana-servers.net:
+
+.nf
+.I $ haeredes a.iana-servers.net b.iana-servers.net <<< \(dqexample.com\(dq
+.fi
+.IP \[bu]
+Check orlitzky.com against the expected name servers, using
+d.gtld-servers.net:
+
+.nf
+.I $ haeredes --server 199.7.91.13 dns1.viabit.com dns2.viabit.com \\\\
+.I "           <<< \(dqorlitzky.com\(dq"
+.fi
+.IP \[bu]
+Check orlitzky.com against only one of the expected two nameservers:
+
+.nf
+.I $ haeredes dns1.viabit.com <<< \(dqorlitzky.com\(dq
+Domain \(dqorlitzky.com.\(dq delegates somewhere else: \
+\(dqdns2.viabit.com.\(dq
+.fi
+.IP \[bu]
+Check a nonexistent domain (we provide no delegates, since we
+know .invalid will not be delegated):
+
+.nf
+.I $ haeredes <<< \(dqexample.invalid\(dq
+Domain \(dqexample.invalid.\(dq not delegated.
+.fi
+.SH BUGS
+.P
+Send bugs to michael@orlitzky.com.