Special Options

-h, --help

Print brief usage information and exit. (run `man zonemaster-cli` for the full manual page)

--version

Print version information and exit.

The printed version numbers are the versions of this program as well as the ones from the underlying Zonemaster test engine.

--list-tests

Print all test cases listed in the test modules, then exit.

--dump-profile

Print the effective profile used in JSON format, then exit.

Testing Options

--test=TESTCASE, --test=TESTMODULE

Limit the testing suite to run only the specified tests. Can be specified multiple times. (default: all test cases)

This can be the name of a testing module, in which case all test cases from that module will be run, or the name of a module followed by a slash and the name of a test case (test case identifier) in that module, or the name of the test case. This option is case-insensitive.

--level=LEVEL

Specify the minimum level of a message to be printed. (default: NOTICE)

Messages with this level (or higher) will be printed. The levels are, from highest to lowest: CRITICAL, ERROR, WARNING, NOTICE, INFO, DEBUG, DEBUG2 and DEBUG3. The lowest three levels (DEBUG) add a significant amount of messages to be shown. They reveal some of the internal workings of the test engine, and are probably not useful for most users.

--stop-level=LEVEL

Specify the minimum severity level after which the testing suite is terminated. (default: the empty string)

When set to the empty string, testing is allowed to complete normally no matter what messages are emitted.

The levels are, from highest to lowest: CRITICAL, ERROR, WARNING, NOTICE, INFO, DEBUG, DEBUG2 and DEBUG3.

--[no-]progress

Print an activity indicator ("spinner"). (default: enabled if the process' standard output is a TTY)

Useful to know that something is happening during a run.

--[no-]ipv4, --[no-]ipv6

Enable or disable queries over IPv4 or IPv6. (default: both enabled)

--sourceaddr4=IPADDR, --sourceaddr6=IPADDR

Set IPv4 or IPv6 source address for DNS queries.

Setting an address not correctly configured on a local network interface fails silently.

--profile=FILE

Override the Zonemaster Engine default profile data with values from the given profile JSON file.

Formatting Options

--[no-]json

Print results as JSON instead of human language. (default: disabled)

--[no-]json-stream

Stream the results as JSON. (default: disabled)

Useful to follow the progress in a machine-readable way.

--[no-]raw

Print messages as raw dumps (message identifiers) instead of translating them to human language.

--locale=LOCALE

Specify which locale to be used by the translation system. (default: system locale or English)

If not given, the translation system itself will look at environment variables to try and guess. If the requested translation does not exist, it will fall back to the local locale, and if that does not exist either, to English.

--[no-]time

Print the timestamp for each message. (default: enabled)

--[no-]show-level

Print the severity level for each message. (default: enabled)

--[no-]show-module

Print the name of the module which produced the message. (default: disabled)

--[no-]show-testcase

Print the name of the test case (test case identifier) which produced the message. (default: disabled)

Summary Options

--[no-]count

Print a summary, at the end of a run, of the numbers of messages for each severity level that were logged during the run. (default: disabled)

--[no-]nstimes

Print a summary, at the end of a run, of the times (in milliseconds) the zone's name servers took to answer. (default: disabled)

--[no-]elapsed

Print elapsed time (in seconds) at end of a run. (default: disabled)

Undelegated Test Options

--ns=DOMAINNAME, --ns=DOMAINNAME/IPADDR

Provide information about a nameserver, for undelegated tests.

The argument must be either: (i) a domain name and an IP address, separated by a single slash character (/), or (ii) only a domain name, in which case a A and AAAA records lookup for that name is done in the live global DNS tree (unless overridden by --hints) and from which the results of that lookup will be used.

This switch can be given multiple times. As long as any of these switches are present, their aggregated content will be used as the entirety of the parent-side delegation information.

--ds=KEYTAG,ALGORITHM,TYPE,DIGEST

Provide a DS record for undelegated testing (that is, a test where the delegating nameserver information is given via --ns switches).

The four pieces of data (keytag, algorithm, type, digest) should be in the same format they would have in a zone file.

--hints=FILE

Name of a root hints file to override the defaults.

Cache Options

--save=FILE

Write the contents of the accumulated DNS packet cache to a file with the given name after the testing suite has finished running.

--restore=FILE

Prime the DNS packet cache with the contents from the file with the given name before starting the testing suite.

The format of the file should be from one produced by the --save switch.

Deprecated Options

--encoding=ENCODING

Deprecated: Simply remove it from your usage. It is ignored.

--[no-]json-translate

Deprecated since v2023.1, use --no-raw instead.

For streaming JSON output, include the translated message of the tag.

Option Aliases

These options are provided for compatibility with older scripts. The first two are aliases for "--help". The rest are aliases for their namesakes spelled with dash "-" instead of underscore "_".

-?

--usage

--dump_profile

--[no-]json_stream

--[no-]json_translate

--list_tests

--[no-]show_level

--[no-]show_module

--[no-]show_testcase

--stop_level=LEVEL