The directory directive specifies the directory in which the name server should run, allowing the other file names in the boot file to use relative path names. There can be only one directory directive and it should be given before any other directives that specify file names.
directory /var/named
If you have more than a couple of named files to be maintained, you may wish to place the named files in a directory such as /var/named and adjust the directory command properly. The main purposes of this command are to make sure named is in the proper directory when trying to include files by relative path names with $INCLUDE and to allow named to run in a location that is reasonable to dump core if it feels the urge.