Gitiles
Code Review Sign In
gerrit.nordix.org / thekelleys / dnsmasq / 246839d64a42c3f3f7b431c65abf9b4f82c19318 / . / doc.html
blob: 66d2b4c1f072cf7d6263e032a97249598c3b98af [file] [log] [blame]
Simon Kelley9e4abcb2004-01-22 19:47:41 +0000[diff] [blame]1<HTML>
2<HEAD>
3<TITLE> Dnsmasq - a DNS forwarder for NAT firewalls.</TITLE>
Simon Kelley28866e92011-02-14 20:19:14 +0000[diff] [blame]4<link rel="icon"
5 href="http://www.thekelleys.org.uk/dnsmasq/images/favicon.ico">
Simon Kelley9e4abcb2004-01-22 19:47:41 +0000[diff] [blame]6</HEAD>
7<BODY BGCOLOR="WHITE">
Simon Kelley28866e92011-02-14 20:19:14 +0000[diff] [blame]8<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
9<tr>
10<td align="left" valign="middle"><img border="0" src="http://www.thekelleys.org.uk/dnsmasq/images/icon.png" /></td>
11<td align="middle" valign="middle"><h1>Dnsmasq</h1></td>
12<td align="right" valign="middle"><img border="0" src="http://www.thekelleys.org.uk/dnsmasq/images/icon.png" /></td></tr>
13</table>
14
Simon Kelley3d8df262005-08-29 12:19:27 +0100[diff] [blame]15Dnsmasq is a lightweight, easy to configure DNS forwarder and DHCP
Simon Kelley9e4abcb2004-01-22 19:47:41 +0000[diff] [blame]16 server. It is designed to provide DNS and, optionally, DHCP, to a
17 small network. It can serve the names of local machines which are
18 not in the global DNS. The DHCP server integrates with the DNS
19 server and allows machines with DHCP-allocated addresses
20 to appear in the DNS with names configured either in each host or
21 in a central configuration file. Dnsmasq supports static and dynamic
Simon Kelley7622fc02009-06-04 20:32:05 +0100[diff] [blame]22 DHCP leases and BOOTP/TFTP/PXE for network booting of diskless machines.
Simon Kelley9e4abcb2004-01-22 19:47:41 +0000[diff] [blame]23<P>
24 Dnsmasq is targeted at home networks using NAT and
25connected to the internet via a modem, cable-modem or ADSL
Simon Kelley1b7ecd12007-02-05 14:57:57 +0000[diff] [blame]26connection but would be a good choice for any smallish network (up to
271000 clients is known to work) where low
Simon Kelley9e4abcb2004-01-22 19:47:41 +0000[diff] [blame]28resource use and ease of configuration are important.
29<P>
Simon Kelley246839d2012-01-06 20:39:54 +0000[diff] [blame^]30Supported platforms include Linux (with glibc and uclibc), Android, *BSD,
Simon Kelley824af852008-02-12 20:43:05 +0000[diff] [blame]31Solaris and Mac OS X.
Simon Kelleyde379512004-06-22 20:23:33 +0100[diff] [blame]32Dnsmasq is included in at least the following Linux distributions:
Simon Kelley4011c4e2006-10-28 16:26:19 +0100[diff] [blame]33Gentoo, Debian, Slackware, Suse, Fedora,
Simon Kelley7cebd202006-05-06 14:13:33 +0100[diff] [blame]34Smoothwall, IP-Cop, floppyfw, Firebox, LEAF, Freesco, fli4l,
35CoyoteLinux, Endian Firewall and
Simon Kelley4011c4e2006-10-28 16:26:19 +0100[diff] [blame]36Clarkconnect. It is also available as FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD ports and is used in
37Linksys wireless routers (dd-wrt, openwrt and the stock firmware) and the m0n0wall project.
Simon Kelley9e4abcb2004-01-22 19:47:41 +0000[diff] [blame]38<P>
39Dnsmasq provides the following features:
40<DIR>
41
42<LI>
43The DNS configuration of machines behind the firewall is simple and
44doesn't depend on the details of the ISP's dns servers
45<LI>
46Clients which try to do DNS lookups while a modem link to the
47internet is down will time out immediately.
48</LI>
49<LI>
50Dnsmasq will serve names from the /etc/hosts file on the firewall
51machine: If the names of local machines are there, then they can all
52be addressed without having to maintain /etc/hosts on each machine.
53</LI>
54<LI>
Simon Kelley26128d22004-11-14 16:43:54 +0000[diff] [blame]55The integrated DHCP server supports static and dynamic DHCP leases and
56multiple networks and IP ranges. It works across BOOTP relays and
57supports DHCP options including RFC3397 DNS search lists.
58Machines which are configured by DHCP have their names automatically
59included in the DNS and the names can specified by each machine or
60centrally by associating a name with a MAC address in the dnsmasq
61config file.
Simon Kelley9e4abcb2004-01-22 19:47:41 +0000[diff] [blame]62</LI>
63<LI>
64Dnsmasq caches internet addresses (A records and AAAA records) and address-to-name
65mappings (PTR records), reducing the load on upstream servers and
Simon Kelley26128d22004-11-14 16:43:54 +0000[diff] [blame]66improving performance (especially on modem connections).
Simon Kelley9e4abcb2004-01-22 19:47:41 +0000[diff] [blame]67</LI>
68<LI>
69Dnsmasq can be configured to automatically pick up the addresses of
Simon Kelley824af852008-02-12 20:43:05 +0000[diff] [blame]70its upstream nameservers from ppp or dhcp configuration. It will
Simon Kelley9e4abcb2004-01-22 19:47:41 +0000[diff] [blame]71automatically reload this information if it changes. This facility
72will be of particular interest to maintainers of Linux firewall
73distributions since it allows dns configuration to be made automatic.
74</LI>
75<LI>
76On IPv6-enabled boxes, dnsmasq can both talk to upstream servers via IPv6
77and offer DNS service via IPv6. On dual-stack (IPv4 and IPv6) boxes it talks
78both protocols and can even act as IPv6-to-IPv4 or IPv4-to-IPv6 forwarder.
79</LI>
80<LI>
81Dnsmasq can be configured to send queries for certain domains to
82upstream servers handling only those domains. This makes integration
83with private DNS systems easy.
84</LI>
85<LI>
Simon Kelley4011c4e2006-10-28 16:26:19 +0100[diff] [blame]86Dnsmasq supports MX and SRV records and can be configured to return MX records
Simon Kelley26128d22004-11-14 16:43:54 +0000[diff] [blame]87for any or all local machines.
Simon Kelley9e4abcb2004-01-22 19:47:41 +0000[diff] [blame]88</LI>
89</DIR>
90
Simon Kelley246839d2012-01-06 20:39:54 +0000[diff] [blame^]91<H2>Get code.</H2>
Simon Kelley9e4abcb2004-01-22 19:47:41 +0000[diff] [blame]92
Simon Kelley246839d2012-01-06 20:39:54 +0000[diff] [blame^]93<A HREF="http://www.thekelleys.org.uk/dnsmasq/">Download</A> dnsmasq here.
Simon Kelley4011c4e2006-10-28 16:26:19 +0100[diff] [blame]94The tarball includes this documentation, source, and manpage.
Simon Kelley832af0b2007-01-21 20:01:28 +0000[diff] [blame]95There is also a <A HREF="CHANGELOG"> CHANGELOG</A> and a <A HREF="FAQ">FAQ</A>.
Simon Kelley9e4abcb2004-01-22 19:47:41 +0000[diff] [blame]96
Simon Kelley246839d2012-01-06 20:39:54 +0000[diff] [blame^]97Dnsmasq has a git repository which contains the complete release
98history of version 2 and development history from 2.60. You can
99<A HREF="http://thekelleys.org.uk/gitweb/?p=dnsmasq.git;a=summary">browse</A>
100the repo, or get a copy using git protocol with the command
101
102<PRE><TT>git clone git://thekelleys.org.uk/dnsmasq.git </TT></PRE>
103
Simon Kelley9e4abcb2004-01-22 19:47:41 +0000[diff] [blame]104<H2>License.</H2>
105Dnsmasq is distributed under the GPL. See the file COPYING in the distribution
106for details.
107
108<H2>Contact.</H2>
Simon Kelley26128d22004-11-14 16:43:54 +0000[diff] [blame]109There is a dnsmasq mailing list at <A
110HREF="http://lists.thekelleys.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/dnsmasq-discuss">
111http://lists.thekelleys.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/dnsmasq-discuss</A> which should be the
112first location for queries, bugreports, suggestions etc.
113Dnsmasq was written by Simon Kelley. You can contact me at <A
114HREF="mailto:simon@thekelleys.org.uk">simon@thekelleys.org.uk</A>.
Simon Kelley9e4abcb2004-01-22 19:47:41 +0000[diff] [blame]115</BODY>
116