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DNS Zone File Linter help

Guidance from this tool's documentation.

Quick start

  1. Paste a BIND-style zone into Lint and normalize, or load the example.
  2. Review errors and warnings, then inspect the canonical record list.
  3. Use Compare zones to see records added and removed between revisions.

Checks

  • Missing or multiple SOA records and missing apex NS records
  • CNAME records that coexist with other data or appear at the zone apex
  • MX and SRV records that target IP literals
  • MX or NS records that target an in-zone CNAME
  • Duplicate records and inconsistent TTLs within an RRset
  • SOA field and serial structure, plus unusual CAA forms

Supported syntax

The parser understands $ORIGIN, $TTL, comments, quoted fields, parenthesized multiline records, inherited owner names, standard TTL suffixes and common DNS record types. It reports unsupported directives such as $INCLUDE and $GENERATE; it does not read files or expand templates.

Limits

This is a static preflight check, not a replacement for loading the file into the exact authoritative name-server implementation you deploy. It does not perform live delegation checks, DNSSEC signing validation or implementation-specific directive expansion. Use the DNSSEC & Delegation Checker after publication for live-chain evidence.

Privacy and saved data

Zone text and comparisons stay in the browser and are not saved to localStorage.

Back to DNS Zone File Linter