dnscontrol/cmd/convertzone

convertzone -- Converts a standard DNS zonefile into tsv, pretty, or DSL

This is a crude hack we put together to read a couple common zonefile formats and output them in a few different formats. Current input formats are BIND zonefiles and OctoDNS "config" YAML files. Current output formats as BIND zonefiles, tab separated records, or a draft DNSControl dnsconfig.js file. For dnsconfig.js, it does about 90% of the work, but should be manually verified.

The primary purpose of this program is to convert BIND-style zonefiles to DNSControl dnsconfig.js files. Nearly all DNS Service providers include the ability to export records as a BIND-style zonefile. This makes it easy to import DNS data from other systems into DNSControl. Later OctoDNS input was added because we had the parser (as part of the OctoDNS provider), so why not use it?

Building the software

Build the software and install in your personal bin:

$ cd cmd/convertzone
$ go build
$ cp convertzone ~/bin/.

Usage Overview

convertzone: Read and write DNS zone files.

convertzone [-in=INPUT] [-out=OUTPUT] zonename [filename]

Input format: -in=bind BIND-style zonefiles (DEFAULT) -in=octodns OctoDNS YAML "config" files.

Output format:

-out=dsl DNSControl DSL language (dnsconfig.js) (DEFAULT) -out=tsv TAB-separated values -out=pretty pretty-printed (BIND-style zonefiles)

zonename The FQDN of the zone name. filename File to read (optional. Defaults to stdin)

The DSL output format is useful for creating the first draft of your dnsconfig.js when importing zones from other services.

The TSV format makes it easy to process a zonefile with shell tools.

The PRETTY format is just a nice way to clean up a zonefile.

If no filename is specified, stdin is assumed. Output is sent to stdout.

The zonename is required as it can not be guessed automatically from the input.

Example:

convertzone stackoverflow.com zone.stackoverflow.com >new/draft.js

-out=tsv:

This is useful for awk and other systems that expect a very uniform set of input.

Example: Print all CNAMEs:

convertzone -out=tsv foo.com <zone.foo.com | awk '$4 == "CNAME" { print $1 " -> " $5 }'

-out=pretty:

This is useful for cleaning up a zonefile. It sorts the records, moving SOA and NS records to the top of the zone; all other records are alphabetically sorted; if a label has mutiple records, they are listed in a logical (not numeric) order, multiple A records are listed sorted by IP address, MX records are sorted by priority, etc. Use -ttl to set a default TTL.

Example: Clean up a zone file:

convertzone -out=pretty foo.com <old/zone.foo.com >new/zone.foo.com

-out=dsl:

This is useful for generating your draft dnsconfig.js configuration. The output can be appended to the dnsconfig.js file as a good first draft.

Example: Generate statements for a dnsconfig.js file:

convertzone -out=dsl foo.com <old/zone.foo.com >first-draft.js

Note: The conversion is not perfect. You'll need to manually clean it up and insert it into dnsconfig.js. More instructions in the DNSControl migration doc.