dzone

Extract DNS zone files from any domain.

dzone queries authoritative nameservers and reconstructs a BIND-compatible zone file from public DNS records.

Install

Homebrew (macOS / Linux)

brew tap prenansantana/tap
brew install dzone

npx (no install)

npx dzone-cli example.com

npm (global)

npm install -g dzone-cli

Go

go install github.com/prenansantana/extract-zone-file@latest

Binary

Download from Releases — single binary, no dependencies.

Usage

# Extract all DNS records
dzone example.com

# Save to file
dzone example.com -o example.com.zone

# Filter specific record types
dzone example.com -t A,MX,TXT

# Use a specific DNS server
dzone example.com -s 1.1.1.1

Output

Standard BIND zone file format:

; Zone file for example.com
; Generated by dzone on 2026-03-04T15:30:00Z
; Queried server: a.iana-servers.net.:53 (authoritative)
; NOTE: Best-effort reconstruction via individual queries.

$ORIGIN example.com.
$TTL 300

; SOA Records
example.com.  86400  IN  SOA  ns1.example.com. admin.example.com. 2024010101 7200 3600 1209600 3600

; NS Records
example.com.  86400  IN  NS  ns1.example.com.
example.com.  86400  IN  NS  ns2.example.com.

; A Records
example.com.  300  IN  A  93.184.216.34

; MX Records
example.com.  300  IN  MX  10  mail.example.com.

; TXT Records
example.com.  300  IN  TXT  "v=spf1 -all"

Flags

Flag	Description	Default
-s	DNS server to query	auto-detect authoritative
-o	Output file	stdout
-t	Record types (comma-separated)	all
-try-axfr	Attempt zone transfer first	true
-v	Show version

Supported Record Types

A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, NS, SOA, TXT, SRV, CAA, PTR

How It Works

1. Discovers authoritative nameservers for the domain
2. Attempts a zone transfer (AXFR) — works when allowed
3. Falls back to querying each record type individually (concurrent)
4. Discovers subdomains via Certificate Transparency (crt.sh) and queries each for CNAME records
5. Formats results as a standard BIND zone file

Build

make build          # local binary
make build-all      # cross-compile (linux, darwin, windows)

Release

Releases are fully automated via GitHub Actions. To publish a new version:

git tag v0.3.0
git push origin v0.3.0

This automatically:

1. Cross-compiles binaries for Linux, macOS, and Windows
2. Creates a GitHub Release with all binaries
3. Updates the Homebrew formula with new checksums
4. Publishes the new version to npm