Creating a standard zone file using dnspython

[David Okwii]

Hello, 

I've failed to get a good answer from Googling or tutorials  on how I can create a standard zone file using dnspython. Could someone kindly help with sample code on how I can generate the following zone file?

$ttl 6H

example.com.           IN SOA ns1.example.com. admin.example.com. (

                          2015111911

                          3H

                          1H

                          1W

                          6H )

;; NS Records

example.com.           IN NS ns1.example.com.

@                      IN NS ns2.example.com.

@                      IN NS ns3.example.com.

                      

;; A records

www                    IN A 192.168.1.1

mail                   IN A 192.168.1.2

I've seen seen the following sample code below, but I simply don't understand some segments of it plus it doesn't exactly generate the above zone file. Thanks. 

zone = dns.zone.Zone(dns.name.from_text('example.com'))

    all_data = (

            ('example.com.', 'SOA', ('davebeast.beast.local. david.beast.local. 2016031421 10800 3600 604800 21600',)),

            ('@', 'TXT', ('foo',)),

            ('@', 'MX', (10, 'mail')),

            ('@', 'A', ('1.2.3.4',)),

            ('mail', 'A', ('1.2.3.10',)),

        )

    for name, rtype, data in all_data:

      print name, rtype, data 

      rdtype = dns.rdatatype.from_text(rtype)

      stuff = ' '.join([str(x) for x in data])

      rdata = dns.rdata.from_text(dns.rdataclass.IN, rdtype, stuff)

      n = zone.get_rdataset(name, rdtype, create=True)

      n.add(rdata)

    zone.to_file("/etc/bind/master/example.com")

[David Okwii]

Hello, 

I think I found a fair compromise. 

#I can set the TTL like this 

zone.get_rdataset(name, rdtype, create=True).add(rdata, 300)

#I can also ensure that the domain name is printed to the zone file like this 

zone.to_file("/etc/bind/master/example.com", sorted=True, relativize=True)

which gives me an output like this 

example.com. 300 IN SOA davebeast.beast.local. david.beast.local. 2016031421 10800 3600 604800 21600

example.com. 300 IN TXT "foo"

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

example.com. 300 IN A 1.2.3.4

mail.example.com. 300 IN A 1.2.3.10

I know this might not have been the best output, I would have loved example.com. to be substituted by "@" symbol. But I just wanted the domain name to be printed somewhere on the file, so that whoever is viewing it is aware of what they are dealing with. I think the framework can be modified to probably at least throw in a comment of the domain such as 

; example.com

For readability purposes,  something like below would be great;

; example.com [448369]

$TTL 86400

@   IN  SOA ns1.linode.com. admin.example.com. 2013062147 14400 14400 1209600 86400

@       NS  ns1.linode.com.

@       NS  ns2.linode.com.

@       NS  ns3.linode.com.

@       NS  ns4.linode.com.

@       NS  ns5.linode.com.

@           MX  10  mail.example.com.

@           A   12.34.56.78

mail        A   12.34.56.78

www         A   12.34.56.78

As opposed to; 

@ 300 IN SOA davebeast.beast.local. david.beast.local. 2016031421 10800 3600 604800 21600

@ 300 IN TXT "foo"

@ 300 IN MX 10 mail

@ 300 IN A 1.2.3.4

mail 300 IN A 1.2.3.10

Purely readability suggestions. 

[Peter Jakubis]

Hi David,

you can run
rndc freeze your.zone
rndc thaw your.zone

which will force BIND to rewrite the zone file to your desired format.

[Maikas Katastrofa]

Cheers David. This has helped me a lot.