dns-zonefile

An RFC1537 compliant DNS zone file generator for Node.js.

Installation

Standalone

sudo npm install dns-zonefile -g

Module

npm install dns-zonefile

Usage

Zone Information

dns-zonefile accepts zone data expressed as a JSON object. It supports SOA, NS, A, CNAME, MX and PTR record types as well as the $ORIGIN keyword (for zone-wide use only). Each record type (and the $ORIGIN keyword) is optional, though bind expects to find at least an SOA record in a valid zone file.

Examples

Forward DNS Zone

The following JSON produces a zone file for a forward DNS zone:

{
    "$origin": "NAMESERVER.NET.",
    "soa": {
        "ttl": 3600,
        "origin": "NS1.NAMESERVER.NET.",
        "person": "HOSTMASTER.MYDOMAIN.COM.",
        "serial": 45,
        "refresh": 3600,
        "retry": 600,
        "expire": 3600000,
        "minimum": 86400
    },
    "ns": [
        "NS1.NAMESERVER.NET",
        "NS2.NAMESERVER.NET"
    ],
    "a": {
        "@": "127.0.0.1",
        "www": "127.0.0.1",
        "mail": "127.0.0.1"
    },
    "cname": {
        "mail1": "mail",
        "mail2": "mail"
    },
    "mx": {
        "0": "mail1",
        "10": "mail2"
    }
}

dns-zonefile will produce the following zone file from the above information:

$ORIGIN NAMESERVER.NET.
$TTL	3600
@   IN  SOA   NS1.NAMESERVER.NET.	   HOSTMASTER.MYDOMAIN.COM.	 (
               45	 ;serial
               3600	 ;refresh
               600	 ;retry
               3600000	 ;expire
               86400	 );minimum
IN		NS		NS1.NAMESERVER.NET
IN		NS		NS2.NAMESERVER.NET

@		IN		A		127.0.0.1
www		IN		A		127.0.0.1
mail		IN		A		127.0.0.1

mail1		IN		CNAME		mail
mail2		IN		CNAME		mail

IN		MX		0		mail1
IN		MX		10		mail2

Reverse DNS Zone

This JSON will produce a zone file for a reverse DNS zone (the $ORIGIN keyword is recommended for reverse DNS zones):

{
    "$origin": "0.168.192.IN_ADDR.ARPA.",
    "soa": {
        "ttl": 3600,
        "origin": "NS1.NAMESERVER.NET.",
        "person": "HOSTMASTER.MYDOMAIN.COM.",
        "serial": 45,
        "refresh": 3600,
        "retry": 600,
        "expire": 3600000,
        "minimum": 86400
    },
    "ns": [
        "NS1.NAMESERVER.NET",
        "NS2.NAMESERVER.NET"
    ],
    "ptr": {
        "1": "HOST1.MYDOMAIN.COM.",
        "2": "HOST2.MYDOMAIN.COM."
    }
}

dns-zonefile will produce the following zone file from the above information:

$ORIGIN 0.168.192.in-addr.arpa.
$TTL	3600
@   IN  SOA   NS1.NAMESERVER.NET.	   HOSTMASTER.MYDOMAIN.COM.	 (
               45	 ;serial
               3600	 ;refresh
               600	 ;retry
               3600000	 ;expire
               86400	 );minimum
IN		NS		NS1.NAMESERVER.NET
IN		NS		NS2.NAMESERVER.NET

1       IN      PTR     HOST1.MYDOMAIN.COM.
2       IN      PTR     HOST2.MYDOMAIN.COM.

Standalone Usage

To use dns-zonefile from the command line, place the desired JSON data in a file (zonefile_data.json in this example) and run the following command. Note that the resulting zone file will be printed to the console; to save the zone file to disk (my_zone.conf in this example), use redirection as in this example:

zonefile zonefile_data.json > my_zone.conf

Module Usage

dns-zonefile can also be used as a module. Simply use require() to include it, then invoke its generate() function as shown in the following example:

var zonefile = require('dns-zonefile');
var options = require('./zonefile_data.json');
var output = zonefile.generate(options);
console.log(output);

options can either be a parsed JSON object as shown above, or a regular Javascript object containing the same required fields.