Tutorial 2: Reading a zone file

The full source code can be found in examples/ldns-read-zone.c

ldns-read-zone reads a zone file, and prints it to stdout, with 1 resource record per line.

% cat example.zone
$ORIGIN example.
$TTL 600

example.        IN SOA  example. op.example. (
                                2004022501 ; serial
                                28800      ; refresh (8 hours)
                                7200       ; retry (2 hours)
                                604800     ; expire (1 week)
                                18000      ; minimum (5 hours)
                                )

@       IN      MX      10 mail.example.
@       IN      NS      ns1
@       IN      NS      ns2
@       IN      A       123.123.123.123

% ldns-read-zone example.zone
example.        600     IN      SOA     example. op.example. 2004022501 28800 7200 604800 18000
example.        600     IN      MX      10 mail.example.
example.        600     IN      NS      ns1.example.
example.        600     IN      NS      ns2.example.
example.        600     IN      A       123.123.123.123
   

Again, let's start with including some necessary header files:

#include "config.h"
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <ldns/ldns.h>
#include <ldns/host2str.h>
#include <errno.h>
host2str.h - txt presentation of RRs
Including this file will include all ldns files, and define some lookup tables.

In this example, we are going to open a file, if that fails, we'll need errno.h to display an error message.

Okay, let's declare the variables we are going to need today:

char *filename;
FILE *fp;
int line_nr = 0;
int c;
bool canonicalize = false;
bool sort = false;
bool print_soa = true;
enum ldns_enum_status ldns_status
Definition: error.h:146
DNS Zone.
Definition: zone.h:43

The only two ldns-specific types here are ldns_zone and ldns_status.

  • ldns_zone is the structure that can contain a complete zone
  • ldns_status again is used to check return values of ldns functions

If we get no filename, we'll read standard input, otherwise, we'll try to open the given filename:

if (argc == 0) {
fp = stdin;
} else {
filename = argv[0];
fp = fopen(filename, "r");
if (!fp) {
fprintf(stderr, "Unable to open %s: %s\n", filename, strerror(errno));
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
}

With the FILE pointer in our hands, we visit ldns to pour it into a zone structure:

s = ldns_zone_new_frm_fp_l(&z, fp, NULL, 0, LDNS_RR_CLASS_IN, &line_nr);
@ LDNS_RR_CLASS_IN
the Internet
Definition: rr.h:47
ldns_status ldns_zone_new_frm_fp_l(ldns_zone **z, FILE *fp, const ldns_rdf *origin, uint32_t default_ttl, ldns_rr_class c __attribute__((unused)), int *line_nr)
Definition: zone.c:198

There is also a ldns_zone_new_frm_fp, but this one also remembers the line number it was on, so we can use that if we encounter a parse error.

Just like in Tutorial 1: Querying for MX records, the first argument is a pointer to the place ldns should store its creation in, and again, the return value is the status code.

The second argument is the file pointer where our zone data should reside.

The third argument, if not NULL, is a dname that contains the zones origin. It will place this dname after every name in the file that is not a fully qualified domain name.

The fourth argument, if not 0, is the default TTL to use.

Both these values can be specified in the zone file by setting $ORIGIN and $TTL.

The fifth argument specifies the default class, which defaults to IN (LDNS_RR_CLASS_IN).

And finally, every time ldns_zone_new_frm_fp_l reads a line from the input file pointer, it will increment the value pointed to by the last argument with 1.

Okay, with that, we should have a nice zone structure. Of course we need to check whether it has succeeded.

if (s != LDNS_STATUS_OK) {
@ LDNS_STATUS_OK
Definition: error.h:26
fprintf(stderr, "%s at line %d\n",
line_nr);
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
if (show_types) {
if (print_soa)
print_soa = ldns_nsec_bitmap_covers_type(show_types,
stripped_list = ldns_rr_list_new();
while ((cur_rr = ldns_rr_list_pop_rr(ldns_zone_rrs(z))))
ldns_rr_get_type(cur_rr)))
ldns_rr_list_push_rr(stripped_list, cur_rr);
else
ldns_rr_free(cur_rr);
ldns_zone_set_rrs(z, stripped_list);
}
if (canonicalize) {
for (i = 0; i < ldns_rr_list_rr_count(ldns_zone_rrs(z)); i++) {
}
}
if (sort) {
}
if (print_soa && ldns_zone_soa(z)) {
if (soa_serial_increment_func) {
, soa_serial_increment_func
, soa_serial_increment_func_data
);
}
ldns_rr_print_fmt(stdout, fmt, ldns_zone_soa(z));
}
bool ldns_nsec_bitmap_covers_type(const ldns_rdf *bitmap, ldns_rr_type type)
Check if RR type t is enumerated and set in the RR type bitmap rdf.
Definition: dnssec.c:1393
const char * ldns_get_errorstr_by_id(ldns_status err)
look up a descriptive text by each error.
Definition: error.c:191
void ldns_rr_list_print_fmt(FILE *output, const ldns_output_format *fmt, const ldns_rr_list *lst)
print a rr_list to output
Definition: host2str.c:3436
void ldns_rr_print_fmt(FILE *output, const ldns_output_format *fmt, const ldns_rr *rr)
Prints the data in the resource record to the given file stream (in presentation format)
Definition: host2str.c:3398
void ldns_rr_list_free(ldns_rr_list *rr_list)
frees an rr_list structure.
Definition: rr.c:1011
ldns_rr * ldns_rr_list_rr(const ldns_rr_list *rr_list, size_t nr)
returns a specific rr of an rrlist.
Definition: rr.c:990
ldns_rr * ldns_rr_list_pop_rr(ldns_rr_list *rr_list)
pops the last rr from an rrlist.
Definition: rr.c:1177
void ldns_rr_free(ldns_rr *rr)
frees an RR structure
Definition: rr.c:81
void ldns_rr2canonical(ldns_rr *rr)
converts each dname in a rr to its canonical form.
Definition: rr.c:1781
size_t ldns_rr_list_rr_count(const ldns_rr_list *rr_list)
returns the number of rr's in an rr_list.
Definition: rr.c:957
ldns_rr_type ldns_rr_get_type(const ldns_rr *rr)
returns the type of the rr.
Definition: rr.c:943
bool ldns_rr_list_push_rr(ldns_rr_list *rr_list, const ldns_rr *rr)
pushes an rr to an rrlist.
Definition: rr.c:1132
ldns_rr_list * ldns_rr_list_new(void)
creates a new rr_list structure.
Definition: rr.c:1000
@ LDNS_RR_TYPE_SOA
marks the start of a zone of authority
Definition: rr.h:90
void ldns_rr_soa_increment_func_int(ldns_rr *soa, ldns_soa_serial_increment_func_t f, int data)
Increment the serial number of the given SOA with the given function using data as an argument for th...
Definition: rr_functions.c:426
void ldns_zone_set_rrs(ldns_zone *z, ldns_rr_list *rrlist)
Set the zone's contents.
Definition: zone.c:41
ldns_rr_list * ldns_zone_rrs(const ldns_zone *z)
Get a list of a zone's content.
Definition: zone.c:35
void ldns_zone_deep_free(ldns_zone *zone)
Frees the allocated memory for the zone, the soa rr in it, and the rr_list structure in it,...
Definition: zone.c:376
ldns_rr * ldns_zone_soa(const ldns_zone *z)
Return the soa record of a zone.
Definition: zone.c:17
void ldns_zone_sort(ldns_zone *zone)
Sort the rrs in a zone, with the current impl.
Definition: zone.c:359

If everything went well, we sort the zone if necessary, print it, and free it.

Since ldns_zone contains other ldns structures, we use ldns_deep_free so that every ldns_rr_list, ldns_rr et cetera are freed too.

If something went wrong, we use ldns_get_errorstr_by_id() to get a nice error string instead of just a status integer.

And of course, we should play nice and close the file: