Zone File (Glue Record)

A zone file is the text file on a domain's authoritative nameservers that holds all of its DNS records — the A, MX, TXT, and other entries that define how the domain behaves. A glue record is a special case: when a domain's nameservers live under that same domain (e.g. ns1.example.com serving example.com), the parent registry must publish the nameserver's IP address directly in the parent zone to avoid a chicken-and-egg lookup. Editing the zone file is how you configure a domain's DNS. It is operational data, separate from ownership — which is exactly what a tokenized domain moves to a wallet-controlled layer. Sources: RFC 1035; Cloudflare DNS zone glossary.