# Using BIND zone files in MaraDNS

MaraDNS has some BIND zone file support. This means it is possible to use BIND zone files in MaraDNS. This makes it easier for people to use MaraDNS in mixed DNS server environments.

Instead of having direct BIND zone file support, MaraDNS has a script, called `bind2csv2.py`, that converts BIND zone files in to the "csv2" zone file format that MaraDNS uses.

`bind2csv2.py` is a Python script, written in version 2.2.3 of the Python interpreter. The script should be compatible with more recent versions of Python. The script assumes Python is the file `/usr/bin/python` on your system; if Python is located elsewhere on your system, please change the first line of `bind2csv2.py`. Naturally, you will need the Python interpreter installed on your system to use `bind2csv2.py`. This is a well-known open source language supported by most modern Linux and BSD distributions.

To use the script, enter a directory containing BIND zone files, and invoke the script thusly:

    bind2csv2.py -c zone1 zone2 zone3

Substitute "zone1", "zone2", and "zone3" with a list of one or more BIND zone files you wish be converted in to MaraDNS csv2 zone files.

Once the script is run, you should have files with names like "zone1.csv2", "zone2.csv2", and "zone3.csv2". These files are csv2 zone files that MaraDNS will be able to parse. Copy these csv2 zone files to a place where MaraDNS can find the zone files.

Should there already be a "zone1.csv2" file when `bind2csv2.py` is run, the "zone1.csv2" file will be replaced.

## BUGS

`bind2csv2.py` is not a perfect zone file converter. In particular, `bind2csv2.py` does not act like BIND when NS records have different TTLs. Please make sure all NS records in your BIND zone files have the same TTL.

In addition, `bind2csv2.py` also does not support all resource record types that BIND supports. Only the following RRs are supported by `bind2csv2.py`: A AAAA AFSDB CNAME GPOS HINFO ISDN LOC MB MD MF MG MINFO MR MX NS NSAP PTR PX RP RT SOA SPF SRV TXT WKS X25