DNS Record Explainer
Parse one common DNS zone record and explain the meaning of its fields.
Read common DNS records field by field
DNS zone lines combine an owner, optional TTL, optional class, record type, and type-specific data. This explainer tokenizes whitespace, quoted text, escaped characters, parentheses, and trailing comments before identifying common A, AAAA, CAA, CNAME, MX, NAPTR, NS, PTR, SOA, SRV, and TXT records. It then labels fields according to the selected record type.
The default MX record reports example.com as owner, 3600 as TTL, IN as class, MX as type, 10 as priority, and mail.example.com as the mail exchanger. An MX line without both priority and target, or an SRV line without its four required data fields, returns an explicit error rather than a vague description.
Zone syntax, quotes, and supported types
This is a structural explainer, not a DNS lookup or complete zone-file compiler. Directives, inherited owner names, origin expansion, and every specialist record type require surrounding zone context. The text is parsed only in your browser and no resolver is queried. Use the output to inspect a copied record, then validate the full zone with the authoritative DNS provider before publishing changes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this look up the current DNS record?
No. It explains pasted zone text locally and performs no resolver or network request.
Are quoted TXT values supported?
Yes. The tokenizer keeps quoted content together and ignores a trailing zone comment outside quotes.
Which record types receive specialized labels?
MX, SRV, SOA, TXT, address, CAA, and target-based records are broken into their relevant fields.
Browse the full set of free, private, in-browser tools.