System administration

dnsglobe – global DNS propagation checker

dnsglobe is a terminal-based DNS propagation checker that queries public resolvers around the world in parallel and compares the answers they return. It is designed for checking how a DNS change is spreading without relying on a browser-based propagation service.

The interface combines resolver results with geographical information and can continue polling a record until the responses converge. It also provides tools for investigating GeoDNS behaviour, resolver caches and the actual anycast sites answering queries, making it useful for more than a simple propagation check.

This is free and open source software.

Key Features

  • Queries 34 public DNS resolvers around the world in parallel.
  • Supports A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, NS, TXT and SOA records.
  • Displays resolver status on either a flat world map or a rotating 3D globe, with automatic selection based on terminal width.
  • Supports EDNS Client Subnet queries for checking how GeoDNS answers differ for specified client networks.
  • Watch mode repeatedly queries resolvers until propagation reaches 100%.
  • Shows response latency, TTL information and expiry countdowns, and can identify stale cached answers or upstream servers still returning old data.
  • Uses NSID and resolver-specific identification queries to determine the actual anycast site answering a request where possible.
  • Groups answers sharing records so round-robin DNS configurations are not incorrectly treated as inconsistent.
  • Allows resolvers to be added or removed during a session and supports permanent custom resolver definitions through a TOML configuration file.
  • Offers a non-interactive mode for scripts, including comparison of results across multiple ECS client subnets.
  • Supports custom interface themes using ANSI colours, indexed colours or true-colour values.
  • Falls back to TCP when DNS responses are truncated.

Website: github.com/514-labs/dnsglobe
Support:
Developer: Nicolas Joseph
License: MIT License

dnsglobe in action
Click animation for full size

dnsglobe is written in Rust. Learn Rust with our recommended free books and free tutorials.


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