Zone file (hosting)

A zone file is a text file used by the DNS (Domain Name System) to store the records and configurations for a specific domain or subdomain. It is managed on the authoritative DNS server for the domain and contains information about how to resolve domain names into IP addresses and handle various domain-related operations.

• This used to be literally a file, and in BIND it still is. More modern systems likely abstracted this to database entries or whatever
• Maintained on the authorative DNS servers for a given domain.

Fetch the zone file?

Usually, you can't just fetch the whole zone file. Maybe you're lucky and you can use

dig AXFR example.com @ns1.example.com

with

• AXFR: Copy zone files (e.g., to another DNS server)
• @ns1.example.com source DNS server.

Example that it is blocked (at least, when I do this on my workstation):

dig AXFR kohlebuersten-webshop.de ns0.transip.net

; <<>> DiG 9.18.28-0ubuntu0.20.04.1-Ubuntu <<>> AXFR kohlebuersten-webshop.de ns0.transip.net
;; global options: +cmd
; Transfer failed.
; Transfer failed.

See also

• DNS records
• MX DNS entries