ldns-read-zone(1)

💖 ldns-read-zone — the manual page, but make it cute 💖

okay bestie, so this is the manual page for ldns-read-zone, from the General Commands Manual section. It's a lil program that reads a DNS zone file and prints it back out at you. Let's get into it 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

ldns-read-zone — read a zonefile and print it

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

ldns-read-zone ZONEFILE

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so ldns-read-zone reads a DNS zone file and prints it. that's it, that's the job. 💅

the output is 1 resource record per line, and there's no pretty-printing makeup — it's giving raw, unfiltered, no filter needed. periodt.

👑 OPTIONS 👑

• -0 — prints a (null) for the RRSIG inception, expiry and key data. bestie this one's for when you're comparing different signing systems that use the same DNSKEYs for signing but have slightly different timings/jitter — the nulls cancel out the noise so you can actually compare. slay.
• -b — include Bubble Babble encoding of DS's. yes it's a real encoding name. iconic behavior honestly.
• -c — canonicalize all resource records in the zone before printing. glow-up pass first. ✨
• -d — only print DNSSEC data from the zone. this skips every record that is not of type NSEC, NSEC3 or RRSIG. and heads up — DNSKEY and DS records are NOT printed. not me filtering those out too 😭
• -e RR type — do not print RRs of the given rr type. you can pass this option multiple times if you've got a whole list of types to skip. also, -e is not meant to be used together with -E — pick a lane bestie.
• -E RR type — print only RRs of the given rr type. also may be given multiple times. and same deal: -E is not meant to be used together with -e. don't mix them, it's giving chaos.
• -h — show usage and exit. the classic "help me" button 🆘
• -n — do not print the SOA record. just, like, leaving it out. respectfully.
• -p — pad the SOA serial number with spaces so the number and the spaces together take ten characters. super useful for in file serial number increments — keeps everything lined up and aesthetic. 💅
• -s — strip DNSSEC data from the zone. this skips every record that is of type NSEC, NSEC3 or RRSIG. but DNSKEY and DS records are still printed. so it's like -d's opposite-ish energy.
• -S [[+|0]number | YYYYMMDDxx | unixtime ] — set the serial number to the given number, or when it's preceded by a sign, offset the existing number with it. when you give the literal strings YYYYMMDDxx or unixtime, the serial number is tried to be reset in datecounter or in unixtime format respectively. and here's the lil twist 🌀 — if the updated serial number is smaller than the original one, the original one is simply increased by one.

⚠️ when updating a serial number, records of type NSEC, NSEC3, RRSIG and DNSKEY will be skipped when printing the zone. so they just don't show up. no cap.

• -u RR type — mark RR type for printing in unknown type format. and -u is not meant to be used together with -U. seriously.
• -U RR type — mark RR type for not printing in unknown type format. okay so here's the tea ☕: the first occurrence of the -U option marks all RR types for printing in unknown type format except for the given RR type. then subsequent -U options will clear the mark for those RR types too, so that only the given RR types will be printed in the presentation format specific for those RR types. it's giving layers. 🧅 and -U is not meant to be used together with -u. i'm begging you.
• -v — show the version and exit. lil flex. ✨
• -z — sort the zone before printing. and heads up, this implies -c — so you get the canonicalize glow-up for free. obsessed. 🎀

🌈 AUTHOR 🌈

written by the ldns team as an example for ldns usage. they ate and left no crumbs. 💅

🍓 REPORTING BUGS 🍓

found a bug? report it to <dns-team@nlnetlabs.nl>. bestie the devs wanna hear from you, fr fr. 🙈

💜 COPYRIGHT 💜

Copyright (C) 2005 NLnet Labs. This is free software. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. so like, no safety net, you're on your own vibes-wise. 😭

and that's the whole page bestie!! this version is the one from 30 May 2005, and it's the ldns-read-zone(1) page. go read some zones, you got this 👑✨🦋