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1.TH DNSMASQ 8
2.SH NAME
3dnsmasq \- A lightweight DHCP and caching DNS server.
4.SH SYNOPSIS
5.B dnsmasq
6.I [OPTION]...
7.SH "DESCRIPTION"
8.BR dnsmasq
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9is a lightweight DNS, TFTP and DHCP server. It is intended to provide
10coupled DNS and DHCP service to a LAN.
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11.PP
12Dnsmasq accepts DNS queries and either answers them from a small, local,
13cache or forwards them to a real, recursive, DNS server. It loads the
14contents of /etc/hosts so that local hostnames
15which do not appear in the global DNS can be resolved and also answers
16DNS queries for DHCP configured hosts.
17.PP
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18The dnsmasq DHCP server supports static address assignments and multiple
19networks. It automatically
3be34541 20sends a sensible default set of DHCP options, and can be configured to
f2621c7f 21send any desired set of DHCP options, including vendor-encapsulated
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22options. It includes a secure, read-only,
23TFTP server to allow net/PXE boot of DHCP hosts and also supports BOOTP.
9e4abcb5 24.PP
3be34541 25Dnsmasq
e46164e0 26supports IPv6 for all functions and a minimal router-advertisement daemon.
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27.SH OPTIONS
28Note that in general missing parameters are allowed and switch off
832af0ba 29functions, for instance "--pid-file" disables writing a PID file. On
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30BSD, unless the GNU getopt library is linked, the long form of the
31options does not work on the command line; it is still recognised in
32the configuration file.
9e4abcb5 33.TP
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34.B --test
35Read and syntax check configuration file(s). Exit with code 0 if all
36is OK, or a non-zero code otherwise. Do not start up dnsmasq.
37.TP
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38.B \-h, --no-hosts
39Don't read the hostnames in /etc/hosts.
40.TP
41.B \-H, --addn-hosts=<file>
42Additional hosts file. Read the specified file as well as /etc/hosts. If -h is given, read
fd9fa481 43only the specified file. This option may be repeated for more than one
7622fc06 44additional hosts file. If a directory is given, then read all the files contained in that directory.
9e4abcb5 45.TP
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46.B \-E, --expand-hosts
47Add the domain to simple names (without a period) in /etc/hosts
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48in the same way as for DHCP-derived names. Note that this does not
49apply to domain names in cnames, PTR records, TXT records etc.
832af0ba 50.TP
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51.B \-T, --local-ttl=<time>
52When replying with information from /etc/hosts or the DHCP leases
53file dnsmasq by default sets the time-to-live field to zero, meaning
c72daea8 54that the requester should not itself cache the information. This is
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55the correct thing to do in almost all situations. This option allows a
56time-to-live (in seconds) to be given for these replies. This will
57reduce the load on the server at the expense of clients using stale
58data under some circumstances.
59.TP
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60.B --neg-ttl=<time>
61Negative replies from upstream servers normally contain time-to-live
62information in SOA records which dnsmasq uses for caching. If the
63replies from upstream servers omit this information, dnsmasq does not
64cache the reply. This option gives a default value for time-to-live
65(in seconds) which dnsmasq uses to cache negative replies even in
66the absence of an SOA record.
67.TP
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68.B --max-ttl=<time>
69Set a maximum TTL value that will be handed out to clients. The specified
70maximum TTL will be given to clients instead of the true TTL value if it is
71lower. The true TTL value is however kept in the cache to avoid flooding
72the upstream DNS servers.
73.TP
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74.B \-k, --keep-in-foreground
75Do not go into the background at startup but otherwise run as
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76normal. This is intended for use when dnsmasq is run under daemontools
77or launchd.
3be34541 78.TP
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79.B \-d, --no-daemon
80Debug mode: don't fork to the background, don't write a pid file,
81don't change user id, generate a complete cache dump on receipt on
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82SIGUSR1, log to stderr as well as syslog, don't fork new processes
83to handle TCP queries.
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84.TP
85.B \-q, --log-queries
86Log the results of DNS queries handled by dnsmasq. Enable a full cache dump on receipt of SIGUSR1.
87.TP
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88.B \-8, --log-facility=<facility>
89Set the facility to which dnsmasq will send syslog entries, this
f2621c7f 90defaults to DAEMON, and to LOCAL0 when debug mode is in operation. If
9e038946 91the facility given contains at least one '/' character, it is taken to
f2621c7f 92be a filename, and dnsmasq logs to the given file, instead of
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93syslog. If the facility is '-' then dnsmasq logs to stderr.
94(Errors whilst reading configuration will still go to syslog,
f2621c7f 95but all output from a successful startup, and all output whilst
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96running, will go exclusively to the file.) When logging to a file,
97dnsmasq will close and reopen the file when it receives SIGUSR2. This
98allows the log file to be rotated without stopping dnsmasq.
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99.TP
100.B --log-async[=<lines>]
101Enable asynchronous logging and optionally set the limit on the
102number of lines
103which will be queued by dnsmasq when writing to the syslog is slow.
104Dnsmasq can log asynchronously: this
105allows it to continue functioning without being blocked by syslog, and
106allows syslog to use dnsmasq for DNS queries without risking deadlock.
107If the queue of log-lines becomes full, dnsmasq will log the
108overflow, and the number of messages lost. The default queue length is
1095, a sane value would be 5-25, and a maximum limit of 100 is imposed.
849a8357 110.TP
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111.B \-x, --pid-file=<path>
112Specify an alternate path for dnsmasq to record its process-id in. Normally /var/run/dnsmasq.pid.
113.TP
114.B \-u, --user=<username>
115Specify the userid to which dnsmasq will change after startup. Dnsmasq must normally be started as root, but it will drop root
b8187c80 116privileges after startup by changing id to another user. Normally this user is "nobody" but that
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117can be over-ridden with this switch.
118.TP
119.B \-g, --group=<groupname>
120Specify the group which dnsmasq will run
121as. The defaults to "dip", if available, to facilitate access to
122/etc/ppp/resolv.conf which is not normally world readable.
123.TP
124.B \-v, --version
125Print the version number.
126.TP
127.B \-p, --port=<port>
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128Listen on <port> instead of the standard DNS port (53). Setting this
129to zero completely disables DNS function, leaving only DHCP and/or TFTP.
9e4abcb5 130.TP
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131.B \-P, --edns-packet-max=<size>
132Specify the largest EDNS.0 UDP packet which is supported by the DNS
316e2730 133forwarder. Defaults to 4096, which is the RFC5625-recommended size.
feba5c1d 134.TP
9e4abcb5 135.B \-Q, --query-port=<query_port>
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136Send outbound DNS queries from, and listen for their replies on, the
137specific UDP port <query_port> instead of using random ports. NOTE
138that using this option will make dnsmasq less secure against DNS
139spoofing attacks but it may be faster and use less resources. Setting this option
140to zero makes dnsmasq use a single port allocated to it by the
141OS: this was the default behaviour in versions prior to 2.43.
142.TP
143.B --min-port=<port>
144Do not use ports less than that given as source for outbound DNS
145queries. Dnsmasq picks random ports as source for outbound queries:
146when this option is given, the ports used will always to larger
147than that specified. Useful for systems behind firewalls.
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148.TP
149.B \-i, --interface=<interface name>
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150Listen only on the specified interface(s). Dnsmasq automatically adds
151the loopback (local) interface to the list of interfaces to use when
152the
153.B \--interface
154option is used. If no
155.B \--interface
9e4abcb5 156or
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157.B \--listen-address
158options are given dnsmasq listens on all available interfaces except any
159given in
160.B \--except-interface
309331f5 161options. IP alias interfaces (eg "eth1:0") cannot be used with
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162.B --interface
163or
164.B --except-interface
309331f5 165options, use --listen-address instead.
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166.TP
167.B \-I, --except-interface=<interface name>
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168Do not listen on the specified interface. Note that the order of
169.B \--listen-address
170.B --interface
171and
172.B --except-interface
173options does not matter and that
174.B --except-interface
175options always override the others.
9e4abcb5 176.TP
3d8df260 177.B \-2, --no-dhcp-interface=<interface name>
832af0ba 178Do not provide DHCP or TFTP on the specified interface, but do provide DNS service.
3d8df260 179.TP
44a2a316 180.B \-a, --listen-address=<ipaddr>
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181Listen on the given IP address(es). Both
182.B \--interface
183and
184.B \--listen-address
185options may be given, in which case the set of both interfaces and
186addresses is used. Note that if no
187.B \--interface
188option is given, but
189.B \--listen-address
190is, dnsmasq will not automatically listen on the loopback
191interface. To achieve this, its IP address, 127.0.0.1, must be
192explicitly given as a
193.B \--listen-address
194option.
9e4abcb5 195.TP
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196.B \-z, --bind-interfaces
197On systems which support it, dnsmasq binds the wildcard address,
198even when it is listening on only some interfaces. It then discards
199requests that it shouldn't reply to. This has the advantage of
200working even when interfaces come and go and change address. This
201option forces dnsmasq to really bind only the interfaces it is
202listening on. About the only time when this is useful is when
f6b7dc47 203running another nameserver (or another instance of dnsmasq) on the
309331f5 204same machine. Setting this option also enables multiple instances of
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205dnsmasq which provide DHCP service to run in the same machine.
206.TP
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207.B --bind-dynamic
208Enable a network mode which is a hybrid between
209.B --bind-interfaces
210and the default. Dnsmasq binds the address of indivdual interfaces,
211allowing multiple dnsmasq instances, but if new interfaces or
212addresses appear, it automatically listens on those (subject to any
213access-control configuration). This makes dynamically created
214interfaces work in the same way as the default. Implementing this
215option requires non-standard networking APIs and it is only availble
05ff1ed7 216under Linux. On other platforms it falls-back to --bind-interfaces mode.
54dd393f 217.TP
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218.B \-y, --localise-queries
219Return answers to DNS queries from /etc/hosts which depend on the interface over which the query was
b8187c80 220received. If a name in /etc/hosts has more than one address associated with
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221it, and at least one of those addresses is on the same subnet as the
222interface to which the query was sent, then return only the
223address(es) on that subnet. This allows for a server to have multiple
224addresses in /etc/hosts corresponding to each of its interfaces, and
225hosts will get the correct address based on which network they are
226attached to. Currently this facility is limited to IPv4.
44a2a316 227.TP
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228.B \-b, --bogus-priv
229Bogus private reverse lookups. All reverse lookups for private IP ranges (ie 192.168.x.x, etc)
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230which are not found in /etc/hosts or the DHCP leases file are answered
231with "no such domain" rather than being forwarded upstream.
9e4abcb5 232.TP
73a08a24 233.B \-V, --alias=[<old-ip>]|[<start-ip>-<end-ip>],<new-ip>[,<mask>]
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234Modify IPv4 addresses returned from upstream nameservers; old-ip is
235replaced by new-ip. If the optional mask is given then any address
236which matches the masked old-ip will be re-written. So, for instance
237.B --alias=1.2.3.0,6.7.8.0,255.255.255.0
238will map 1.2.3.56 to 6.7.8.56 and 1.2.3.67 to 6.7.8.67. This is what
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239Cisco PIX routers call "DNS doctoring". If the old IP is given as
240range, then only addresses in the range, rather than a whole subnet,
241are re-written. So
242.B --alias=192.168.0.10-192.168.0.40,10.0.0.0,255.255.255.0
243maps 192.168.0.10->192.168.0.40 to 10.0.0.10->10.0.0.40
1cff166d 244.TP
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245.B \-B, --bogus-nxdomain=<ipaddr>
246Transform replies which contain the IP address given into "No such
247domain" replies. This is intended to counteract a devious move made by
b8187c80 248Verisign in September 2003 when they started returning the address of
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249an advertising web page in response to queries for unregistered names,
250instead of the correct NXDOMAIN response. This option tells dnsmasq to
251fake the correct response when it sees this behaviour. As at Sept 2003
b8187c80 252the IP address being returned by Verisign is 64.94.110.11
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253.TP
254.B \-f, --filterwin2k
255Later versions of windows make periodic DNS requests which don't get sensible answers from
256the public DNS and can cause problems by triggering dial-on-demand links. This flag turns on an option
257to filter such requests. The requests blocked are for records of types SOA and SRV, and type ANY where the
258requested name has underscores, to catch LDAP requests.
259.TP
260.B \-r, --resolv-file=<file>
261Read the IP addresses of the upstream nameservers from <file>, instead of
262/etc/resolv.conf. For the format of this file see
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263.BR resolv.conf (5).
264The only lines relevant to dnsmasq are nameserver ones. Dnsmasq can
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265be told to poll more than one resolv.conf file, the first file name specified
266overrides the default, subsequent ones add to the list. This is only
267allowed when polling; the file with the currently latest modification
268time is the one used.
269.TP
270.B \-R, --no-resolv
271Don't read /etc/resolv.conf. Get upstream servers only from the command
b49644f3 272line or the dnsmasq configuration file.
9e4abcb5 273.TP
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274.B \-1, --enable-dbus
275Allow dnsmasq configuration to be updated via DBus method calls. The
276configuration which can be changed is upstream DNS servers (and
b8187c80 277corresponding domains) and cache clear. Requires that dnsmasq has
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278been built with DBus support.
279.TP
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280.B \-o, --strict-order
281By default, dnsmasq will send queries to any of the upstream servers
824af85b 282it knows about and tries to favour servers that are known to
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283be up. Setting this flag forces dnsmasq to try each query with each
284server strictly in the order they appear in /etc/resolv.conf
285.TP
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286.B --all-servers
287By default, when dnsmasq has more than one upstream server available,
288it will send queries to just one server. Setting this flag forces
289dnsmasq to send all queries to all available servers. The reply from
c72daea8 290the server which answers first will be returned to the original requester.
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291.TP
292.B --stop-dns-rebind
293Reject (and log) addresses from upstream nameservers which are in the
294private IP ranges. This blocks an attack where a browser behind a
295firewall is used to probe machines on the local network.
296.TP
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297.B --rebind-localhost-ok
298Exempt 127.0.0.0/8 from rebinding checks. This address range is
299returned by realtime black hole servers, so blocking it may disable
300these services.
301.TP
302.B --rebind-domain-ok=[<domain>]|[[/<domain>/[<domain>/]
303Do not detect and block dns-rebind on queries to these domains. The
304argument may be either a single domain, or multiple domains surrounded
305by '/', like the --server syntax, eg.
306.B --rebind-domain-ok=/domain1/domain2/domain3/
307.TP
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308.B \-n, --no-poll
309Don't poll /etc/resolv.conf for changes.
310.TP
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311.B --clear-on-reload
312Whenever /etc/resolv.conf is re-read, clear the DNS cache.
313This is useful when new nameservers may have different
314data than that held in cache.
315.TP
9e4abcb5 316.B \-D, --domain-needed
7de060b0 317Tells dnsmasq to never forward A or AAAA queries for plain names, without dots
3d8df260 318or domain parts, to upstream nameservers. If the name is not known
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319from /etc/hosts or DHCP then a "not found" answer is returned.
320.TP
824af85b 321.B \-S, --local, --server=[/[<domain>]/[domain/]][<ipaddr>[#<port>][@<source-ip>|<interface>[#<port>]]
5aabfc78 322Specify IP address of upstream servers directly. Setting this flag does
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323not suppress reading of /etc/resolv.conf, use -R to do that. If one or
324more
325optional domains are given, that server is used only for those domains
326and they are queried only using the specified server. This is
327intended for private nameservers: if you have a nameserver on your
328network which deals with names of the form
329xxx.internal.thekelleys.org.uk at 192.168.1.1 then giving the flag
b8187c80 330.B -S /internal.thekelleys.org.uk/192.168.1.1
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331will send all queries for
332internal machines to that nameserver, everything else will go to the
333servers in /etc/resolv.conf. An empty domain specification,
334.B //
335has the special meaning of "unqualified names only" ie names without any
336dots in them. A non-standard port may be specified as
337part of the IP
338address using a # character.
339More than one -S flag is allowed, with
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340repeated domain or ipaddr parts as required.
341
342More specific domains take precendence over less specific domains, so:
343.B --server=/google.com/1.2.3.4
344.B --server=/www.google.com/2.3.4.5
345will send queries for *.google.com to 1.2.3.4, except *www.google.com,
346which will go to 2.3.4.5
347
348The special server address '#' means, "use the standard servers", so
349.B --server=/google.com/1.2.3.4
350.B --server=/www.google.com/#
351will send queries for *.google.com to 1.2.3.4, except *www.google.com which will
352be forwarded as usual.
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353
354Also permitted is a -S
355flag which gives a domain but no IP address; this tells dnsmasq that
356a domain is local and it may answer queries from /etc/hosts or DHCP
357but should never forward queries on that domain to any upstream
358servers.
359.B local
360is a synonym for
361.B server
362to make configuration files clearer in this case.
363
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364IPv6 addresses may include a %interface scope-id, eg
365fe80::202:a412:4512:7bbf%eth0.
366
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367The optional string after the @ character tells
368dnsmasq how to set the source of the queries to this
369nameserver. It should be an ip-address, which should belong to the machine on which
9e4abcb5 370dnsmasq is running otherwise this server line will be logged and then
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371ignored, or an interface name. If an interface name is given, then
372queries to the server will be forced via that interface; if an
373ip-address is given then the source address of the queries will be set
374to that address.
375The query-port flag is ignored for any servers which have a
9e4abcb5 376source address specified but the port may be specified directly as
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377part of the source address. Forcing queries to an interface is not
378implemented on all platforms supported by dnsmasq.
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379.TP
380.B \-A, --address=/<domain>/[domain/]<ipaddr>
381Specify an IP address to return for any host in the given domains.
382Queries in the domains are never forwarded and always replied to
383with the specified IP address which may be IPv4 or IPv6. To give
384both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses for a domain, use repeated -A flags.
385Note that /etc/hosts and DHCP leases override this for individual
386names. A common use of this is to redirect the entire doubleclick.net
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387domain to some friendly local web server to avoid banner ads. The
388domain specification works in the same was as for --server, with the
389additional facility that /#/ matches any domain. Thus
390--address=/#/1.2.3.4 will always return 1.2.3.4 for any query not
391answered from /etc/hosts or DHCP and not sent to an upstream
392nameserver by a more specific --server directive.
9e4abcb5 393.TP
f6b7dc47 394.B \-m, --mx-host=<mx name>[[,<hostname>],<preference>]
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395Return an MX record named <mx name> pointing to the given hostname (if
396given), or
397the host specified in the --mx-target switch
9e4abcb5 398or, if that switch is not given, the host on which dnsmasq
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399is running. The default is useful for directing mail from systems on a LAN
400to a central server. The preference value is optional, and defaults to
4011 if not given. More than one MX record may be given for a host.
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402.TP
403.B \-t, --mx-target=<hostname>
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404Specify the default target for the MX record returned by dnsmasq. See
405--mx-host. If --mx-target is given, but not --mx-host, then dnsmasq
406returns a MX record containing the MX target for MX queries on the
407hostname of the machine on which dnsmasq is running.
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408.TP
409.B \-e, --selfmx
410Return an MX record pointing to itself for each local
411machine. Local machines are those in /etc/hosts or with DHCP leases.
412.TP
413.B \-L, --localmx
414Return an MX record pointing to the host given by mx-target (or the
415machine on which dnsmasq is running) for each
416local machine. Local machines are those in /etc/hosts or with DHCP
417leases.
418.TP
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419.B \-W, --srv-host=<_service>.<_prot>.[<domain>],[<target>[,<port>[,<priority>[,<weight>]]]]
420Return a SRV DNS record. See RFC2782 for details. If not supplied, the
421domain defaults to that given by
422.B --domain.
423The default for the target domain is empty, and the default for port
424is one and the defaults for
425weight and priority are zero. Be careful if transposing data from BIND
426zone files: the port, weight and priority numbers are in a different
427order. More than one SRV record for a given service/domain is allowed,
3d8df260 428all that match are returned.
f6b7dc47 429.TP
e46164e0 430.B --host-record=<name>[,<name>....][<IPv4-address>],[<IPv6-address>]
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431Add A, AAAA and PTR records to the DNS. This adds one or more names to
432the DNS with associated IPv4 (A) and IPv6 (AAAA) records. A name may
433appear in more than one
434.B host-record
435and therefore be assigned more than one address. Only the first
436address creates a PTR record linking the address to the name. This is
437the same rule as is used reading hosts-files.
438.B host-record
439options are considered to be read before host-files, so a name
440appearing there inhibits PTR-record creation if it appears in
e46164e0 441hosts-file also. Unlike hosts-files, names are not expanded, even when
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442.B expand-hosts
443is in effect. Short and long names may appear in the same
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444.B host-record,
445eg.
446.B --host-record=laptop,laptop.thekelleys.org,192.168.0.1,1234::100
e759d426 447.TP
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448.B \-Y, --txt-record=<name>[[,<text>],<text>]
449Return a TXT DNS record. The value of TXT record is a set of strings,
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450so any number may be included, delimited by commas; use quotes to put
451commas into a string. Note that the maximum length of a single string
452is 255 characters, longer strings are split into 255 character chunks.
0a852541 453.TP
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454.B --ptr-record=<name>[,<target>]
455Return a PTR DNS record.
456.TP
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457.B --naptr-record=<name>,<order>,<preference>,<flags>,<service>,<regexp>[,<replacement>]
458Return an NAPTR DNS record, as specified in RFC3403.
459.TP
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460.B --cname=<cname>,<target>
461Return a CNAME record which indicates that <cname> is really
462<target>. There are significant limitations on the target; it must be a
463DNS name which is known to dnsmasq from /etc/hosts (or additional
464hosts files) or from DHCP. If the target does not satisfy this
465criteria, the whole cname is ignored. The cname must be unique, but it
466is permissable to have more than one cname pointing to the same target.
467.TP
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468.B --dns-rr=<name>,<RR-number>,[<hex data>]
469Return an arbitrary DNS Resource Record. The number is the type of the
470record (which is always in the C_IN class). The value of the record is
471given by the hex data, which may be of the for 01:23:45 or 01 23 45 or
472012345 or any mixture of these.
473.TP
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474.B --interface-name=<name>,<interface>
475Return a DNS record associating the name with the primary address on
476the given interface. This flag specifies an A record for the given
477name in the same way as an /etc/hosts line, except that the address is
478not constant, but taken from the given interface. If the interface is
9e038946 479down, not configured or non-existent, an empty record is returned. The
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480matching PTR record is also created, mapping the interface address to
481the name. More than one name may be associated with an interface
482address by repeating the flag; in that case the first instance is used
483for the reverse address-to-name mapping.
484.TP
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485.B --add-mac
486Add the MAC address of the requestor to DNS queries which are
487forwarded upstream. This may be used to DNS filtering by the upstream
488server. The MAC address can only be added if the requestor is on the same
489subnet as the dnsmasq server. Note that the mechanism used to achieve this (an EDNS0 option)
490is not yet standardised, so this should be considered
491experimental. Also note that exposing MAC addresses in this way may
492have security and privacy implications.
493.TP
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494.B \-c, --cache-size=<cachesize>
495Set the size of dnsmasq's cache. The default is 150 names. Setting the cache size to zero disables caching.
496.TP
497.B \-N, --no-negcache
498Disable negative caching. Negative caching allows dnsmasq to remember
499"no such domain" answers from upstream nameservers and answer
5aabfc78 500identical queries without forwarding them again.
9e4abcb5 501.TP
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502.B \-0, --dns-forward-max=<queries>
503Set the maximum number of concurrent DNS queries. The default value is
504150, which should be fine for most setups. The only known situation
505where this needs to be increased is when using web-server log file
506resolvers, which can generate large numbers of concurrent queries.
208b65c5 507.TP
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508.B --proxy-dnssec
509A resolver on a client machine can do DNSSEC validation in two ways: it
510can perform the cryptograhic operations on the reply it receives, or
511it can rely on the upstream recursive nameserver to do the validation
512and set a bit in the reply if it succeeds. Dnsmasq is not a DNSSEC
513validator, so it cannot perform the validation role of the recursive nameserver,
514but it can pass through the validation results from its own upstream
515nameservers. This option enables this behaviour. You should only do
516this if you trust all the configured upstream nameservers
517.I and the network between you and them.
518If you use the first DNSSEC mode, validating resolvers in clients,
519this option is not required. Dnsmasq always returns all the data
520needed for a client to do validation itself.
521.TP
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522.B --conntrack
523Read the Linux connection track mark associated with incoming DNS
524queries and set the same mark value on upstream traffic used to answer
525those queries. This allows traffic generated by dnsmasq to be
526associated with the queries which cause it, useful for bandwidth
527accounting and firewalling. Dnsmasq must have conntrack support
528compiled in and the kernel must have conntrack support
529included and configured. This option cannot be combined with
530--query-port.
531.TP
e8ca69ea 532.B \-F, --dhcp-range=[interface:<interface>,][tag:<tag>[,tag:<tag>],][set:<tag],]<start-addr>[,<end-addr>][,<mode>][,<netmask>[,<broadcast>]][,<lease time>]
1adadf58 533.TP
e8ca69ea 534.B \-F, --dhcp-range=[interface:<interface>,][tag:<tag>[,tag:<tag>],][set:<tag],]<start-IPv6addr>[,<end-IPv6addr>][,<mode>][,<prefix-len>][,<lease time>]
1adadf58 535
9e4abcb5 536Enable the DHCP server. Addresses will be given out from the range
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537<start-addr> to <end-addr> and from statically defined addresses given
538in
539.B dhcp-host
540options. If the lease time is given, then leases
b8187c80 541will be given for that length of time. The lease time is in seconds,
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542or minutes (eg 45m) or hours (eg 1h) or "infinite". If not given,
543the default lease time is one hour. The
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544minimum lease time is two minutes. For IPv6 ranges, the lease time
545maybe "deprecated"; this sets the preferred lifetime sent in a DHCP
546lease or router advertisement to zero, which causes clients to use
547other addresses, if available, for new connections as a prelude to renumbering.
548
549This option may be repeated, with different addresses, to enable DHCP
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550service to more than one network. For directly connected networks (ie,
551networks on which the machine running dnsmasq has an interface) the
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552netmask is optional: dnsmasq will determine it from the interface
553configuration. For networks which receive DHCP service via a relay
554agent, dnsmasq cannot determine the netmask itself, so it should be
555specified, otherwise dnsmasq will have to guess, based on the class (A, B or
556C) of the network address. The broadcast address is
7622fc06 557always optional. It is always
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558allowed to have more than one dhcp-range in a single subnet.
559
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560For IPv6, the parameters are slightly different: instead of netmask
561and broadcast address, there is an optional prefix length. If not
562given, this defaults to 64. Unlike the IPv4 case, the prefix length is not
563automatically derived from the interface configuration. The mimimum
564size of the prefix length is 64.
565
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566The optional
567.B set:<tag>
568sets an alphanumeric label which marks this network so that
0a852541 569dhcp options may be specified on a per-network basis.
8ef5ada2 570When it is prefixed with 'tag:' instead, then its meaning changes from setting
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571a tag to matching it. Only one tag may be set, but more than one tag
572may be matched.
573
e8ca69ea 574The optional <mode> keyword may be
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575.B static
576which tells dnsmasq to enable DHCP for the network specified, but not
7622fc06 577to dynamically allocate IP addresses: only hosts which have static
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578addresses given via
579.B dhcp-host
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580or from /etc/ethers will be served.
581
e46164e0 582For IPv4, the <mode> may be
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583.B proxy
584in which case dnsmasq will provide proxy-DHCP on the specified
585subnet. (See
586.B pxe-prompt
587and
588.B pxe-service
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589for details.)
590
591For IPv6, the mode may be some combination of
592.B ra-only, slaac, ra-names, ra-stateless.
8ef5ada2 593
c5ad4e79 594.B ra-only
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595tells dnsmasq to offer Router Advertisement only on this subnet,
596and not DHCP.
597
598.B slaac
599tells dnsmasq to offer Router Advertisement on this subnet and to set
600the A bit in the router advertisement, so that the client will use
601SLAAC addresses. When used with a DHCP range or static DHCP address
602this results in the client having both a DHCP-assigned and a SLAAC
603address.
604
605.B ra-stateless
606sends router advertisements with the O and A bits set, and provides a
607stateless DHCP service. The client will use a SLAAC address, and use
608DHCP for other configuration information.
609
7023e382 610.B ra-names
e8ca69ea 611enables a mode
7023e382 612which gives DNS names to dual-stack hosts which do SLAAC for
884a6dfe 613IPv6. Dnsmasq uses the host's IPv4 lease to derive the name, network
7023e382 614segment and MAC address and assumes that the host will also have an
e46164e0 615IPv6 address calculated using the SLAAC algorithm, on the same network
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616segment. The address is pinged, and if a reply is received, an AAAA
617record is added to the DNS for this IPv6
7023e382 618address. Note that this is only happens for directly-connected
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619networks, (not one doing DHCP via a relay) and it will not work
620if a host is using privacy extensions.
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621.B ra-names
622can be combined with
623.B ra-stateless
624and
625.B slaac.
c5ad4e79 626
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627The interface:<interface name> section is not normally used. See the
628NOTES section for details of this.
9e4abcb5 629.TP
8ef5ada2 630.B \-G, --dhcp-host=[<hwaddr>][,id:<client_id>|*][,set:<tag>][,<ipaddr>][,<hostname>][,<lease_time>][,ignore]
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631Specify per host parameters for the DHCP server. This allows a machine
632with a particular hardware address to be always allocated the same
633hostname, IP address and lease time. A hostname specified like this
634overrides any supplied by the DHCP client on the machine. It is also
c72daea8 635allowable to omit the hardware address and include the hostname, in
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636which case the IP address and lease times will apply to any machine
637claiming that name. For example
638.B --dhcp-host=00:20:e0:3b:13:af,wap,infinite
639tells dnsmasq to give
cdeda28f 640the machine with hardware address 00:20:e0:3b:13:af the name wap, and
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641an infinite DHCP lease.
642.B --dhcp-host=lap,192.168.0.199
643tells
644dnsmasq to always allocate the machine lap the IP address
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645192.168.0.199.
646
647Addresses allocated like this are not constrained to be
648in the range given by the --dhcp-range option, but they must be in
649the same subnet as some valid dhcp-range. For
650subnets which don't need a pool of dynamically allocated addresses,
651use the "static" keyword in the dhcp-range declaration.
652
653It is allowed to use client identifiers rather than
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654hardware addresses to identify hosts by prefixing with 'id:'. Thus:
655.B --dhcp-host=id:01:02:03:04,.....
656refers to the host with client identifier 01:02:03:04. It is also
657allowed to specify the client ID as text, like this:
a84fa1d0 658.B --dhcp-host=id:clientidastext,.....
9009d746 659
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660A single
661.B dhcp-host
662may contain an IPv4 address or an IPv6 address, or both. IPv6 addresses must be bracketed by square brackets thus:
663.B --dhcp-host=laptop,[1234::56]
a156cae9 664Note that in IPv6 DHCP, the hardware address is not normally available, so a client must be identified by client-id (called client DUID in IPv6-land) or hostname.
1adadf58 665
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666The special option id:* means "ignore any client-id
667and use MAC addresses only." This is useful when a client presents a client-id sometimes
668but not others.
9009d746 669
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670If a name appears in /etc/hosts, the associated address can be
671allocated to a DHCP lease, but only if a
672.B --dhcp-host
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673option specifying the name also exists. Only one hostname can be
674given in a
675.B dhcp-host
676option, but aliases are possible by using CNAMEs. (See
677.B --cname
678).
679
680The special keyword "ignore"
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681tells dnsmasq to never offer a DHCP lease to a machine. The machine
682can be specified by hardware address, client ID or hostname, for
683instance
684.B --dhcp-host=00:20:e0:3b:13:af,ignore
685This is
686useful when there is another DHCP server on the network which should
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687be used by some machines.
688
8ef5ada2 689The set:<tag> contruct sets the tag
9009d746 690whenever this dhcp-host directive is in use. This can be used to
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691selectively send DHCP options just for this host. More than one tag
692can be set in a dhcp-host directive (but not in other places where
693"set:<tag>" is allowed). When a host matches any
5aabfc78 694dhcp-host directive (or one implied by /etc/ethers) then the special
8ef5ada2 695tag "known" is set. This allows dnsmasq to be configured to
5aabfc78 696ignore requests from unknown machines using
8ef5ada2 697.B --dhcp-ignore=tag:!known
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698Ethernet addresses (but not client-ids) may have
699wildcard bytes, so for example
700.B --dhcp-host=00:20:e0:3b:13:*,ignore
cdeda28f 701will cause dnsmasq to ignore a range of hardware addresses. Note that
0a852541 702the "*" will need to be escaped or quoted on a command line, but not
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703in the configuration file.
704
705Hardware addresses normally match any
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706network (ARP) type, but it is possible to restrict them to a single
707ARP type by preceding them with the ARP-type (in HEX) and "-". so
708.B --dhcp-host=06-00:20:e0:3b:13:af,1.2.3.4
709will only match a
710Token-Ring hardware address, since the ARP-address type for token ring
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711is 6.
712
1adadf58 713As a special case, in DHCPv4, it is possible to include more than one
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714hardware address. eg:
715.B --dhcp-host=11:22:33:44:55:66,12:34:56:78:90:12,192.168.0.2
716This allows an IP address to be associated with
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717multiple hardware addresses, and gives dnsmasq permission to abandon a
718DHCP lease to one of the hardware addresses when another one asks for
719a lease. Beware that this is a dangerous thing to do, it will only
720work reliably if only one of the hardware addresses is active at any
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721time and there is no way for dnsmasq to enforce this. It is, for instance,
722useful to allocate a stable IP address to a laptop which
9009d746 723has both wired and wireless interfaces.
5aabfc78 724.TP
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725.B --dhcp-hostsfile=<path>
726Read DHCP host information from the specified file. If a directory
727is given, then read all the files contained in that directory. The file contains
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728information about one host per line. The format of a line is the same
729as text to the right of '=' in --dhcp-host. The advantage of storing DHCP host information
730in this file is that it can be changed without re-starting dnsmasq:
731the file will be re-read when dnsmasq receives SIGHUP.
824af85b 732.TP
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733.B --dhcp-optsfile=<path>
734Read DHCP option information from the specified file. If a directory
735is given, then read all the files contained in that directory. The advantage of
824af85b 736using this option is the same as for --dhcp-hostsfile: the
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737dhcp-optsfile will be re-read when dnsmasq receives SIGHUP. Note that
738it is possible to encode the information in a
739.B --dhcp-boot
740flag as DHCP options, using the options names bootfile-name,
741server-ip-address and tftp-server. This allows these to be included
742in a dhcp-optsfile.
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743.TP
744.B \-Z, --read-ethers
745Read /etc/ethers for information about hosts for the DHCP server. The
746format of /etc/ethers is a hardware address, followed by either a
747hostname or dotted-quad IP address. When read by dnsmasq these lines
748have exactly the same effect as
749.B --dhcp-host
5aabfc78 750options containing the same information. /etc/ethers is re-read when
1adadf58 751dnsmasq receives SIGHUP. IPv6 addresses are NOT read from /etc/ethers.
9e4abcb5 752.TP
1adadf58 753.B \-O, --dhcp-option=[tag:<tag>,[tag:<tag>,]][encap:<opt>,][vi-encap:<enterprise>,][vendor:[<vendor-class>],][<opt>|option:<opt-name>|option6:<opt>|option6:<opt-name>],[<value>[,<value>]]
b8187c80 754Specify different or extra options to DHCP clients. By default,
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755dnsmasq sends some standard options to DHCP clients, the netmask and
756broadcast address are set to the same as the host running dnsmasq, and
757the DNS server and default route are set to the address of the machine
1adadf58 758running dnsmasq. (Equivalent rules apply for IPv6.) If the domain name option has been set, that is sent.
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759This configuration allows these defaults to be overridden,
760or other options specified. The option, to be sent may be given as a
761decimal number or as "option:<option-name>" The option numbers are
762specified in RFC2132 and subsequent RFCs. The set of option-names
763known by dnsmasq can be discovered by running "dnsmasq --help dhcp".
764For example, to set the default route option to
9e4abcb5 765192.168.4.4, do
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766.B --dhcp-option=3,192.168.4.4
767or
768.B --dhcp-option = option:router, 192.168.4.4
9e4abcb5 769and to set the time-server address to 192.168.0.4, do
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770.B --dhcp-option = 42,192.168.0.4
771or
772.B --dhcp-option = option:ntp-server, 192.168.0.4
0010b474 773The special address 0.0.0.0 (or [::] for DHCPv6) is taken to mean "the address of the
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774machine running dnsmasq". Data types allowed are comma separated
775dotted-quad IP addresses, a decimal number, colon-separated hex digits
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776and a text string. If the optional tags are given then
777this option is only sent when all the tags are matched.
91dccd09 778
cdeda28f 779Special processing is done on a text argument for option 119, to
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780conform with RFC 3397. Text or dotted-quad IP addresses as arguments
781to option 120 are handled as per RFC 3361. Dotted-quad IP addresses
782which are followed by a slash and then a netmask size are encoded as
783described in RFC 3442.
cdeda28f 784
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785IPv6 options are specified using the
786.B option6:
787keyword, followed by the option number or option name. The IPv6 option
788name space is disjoint from the IPv4 option name space. IPv6 addresses
789in options must be bracketed with square brackets, eg.
790.B --dhcp-option=option6:ntp-server,[1234::56]
791
792
9e4abcb5 793Be careful: no checking is done that the correct type of data for the
26128d27 794option number is sent, it is quite possible to
9e4abcb5 795persuade dnsmasq to generate illegal DHCP packets with injudicious use
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796of this flag. When the value is a decimal number, dnsmasq must determine how
797large the data item is. It does this by examining the option number and/or the
b8187c80 798value, but can be overridden by appending a single letter flag as follows:
91dccd09 799b = one byte, s = two bytes, i = four bytes. This is mainly useful with
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800encapsulated vendor class options (see below) where dnsmasq cannot
801determine data size from the option number. Option data which
802consists solely of periods and digits will be interpreted by dnsmasq
803as an IP address, and inserted into an option as such. To force a
804literal string, use quotes. For instance when using option 66 to send
805a literal IP address as TFTP server name, it is necessary to do
806.B --dhcp-option=66,"1.2.3.4"
91dccd09 807
1adadf58 808Encapsulated Vendor-class options may also be specified (IPv4 only) using
91dccd09 809--dhcp-option: for instance
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810.B --dhcp-option=vendor:PXEClient,1,0.0.0.0
811sends the encapsulated vendor
812class-specific option "mftp-address=0.0.0.0" to any client whose
813vendor-class matches "PXEClient". The vendor-class matching is
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814substring based (see --dhcp-vendorclass for details). If a
815vendor-class option (number 60) is sent by dnsmasq, then that is used
816for selecting encapsulated options in preference to any sent by the
817client. It is
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818possible to omit the vendorclass completely;
819.B --dhcp-option=vendor:,1,0.0.0.0
1adadf58 820in which case the encapsulated option is always sent.
73a08a24 821
1adadf58 822Options may be encapsulated (IPv4 only) within other options: for instance
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823.B --dhcp-option=encap:175, 190, "iscsi-client0"
824will send option 175, within which is the option 190. If multiple
825options are given which are encapsulated with the same option number
826then they will be correctly combined into one encapsulated option.
827encap: and vendor: are may not both be set in the same dhcp-option.
828
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829The final variant on encapsulated options is "Vendor-Identifying
830Vendor Options" as specified by RFC3925. These are denoted like this:
831.B --dhcp-option=vi-encap:2, 10, "text"
832The number in the vi-encap: section is the IANA enterprise number
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833used to identify this option. This form of encapsulation is supported
834in IPv6.
835
1b7ecd11 836The address 0.0.0.0 is not treated specially in
73a08a24 837encapsulated options.
9e4abcb5 838.TP
8ef5ada2 839.B --dhcp-option-force=[tag:<tag>,[tag:<tag>,]][encap:<opt>,][vi-encap:<enterprise>,][vendor:[<vendor-class>],]<opt>,[<value>[,<value>]]
6b01084f 840This works in exactly the same way as
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841.B --dhcp-option
842except that the option will always be sent, even if the client does
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843not ask for it in the parameter request list. This is sometimes
844needed, for example when sending options to PXELinux.
845.TP
824af85b 846.B --dhcp-no-override
1adadf58 847(IPv4 only) Disable re-use of the DHCP servername and filename fields as extra
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848option space. If it can, dnsmasq moves the boot server and filename
849information (from dhcp-boot) out of their dedicated fields into
850DHCP options. This make extra space available in the DHCP packet for
851options but can, rarely, confuse old or broken clients. This flag
852forces "simple and safe" behaviour to avoid problems in such a case.
853.TP
1adadf58 854.B \-U, --dhcp-vendorclass=set:<tag>,[enterprise:<IANA-enterprise number>,]<vendor-class>
8ef5ada2 855Map from a vendor-class string to a tag. Most DHCP clients provide a
a222641c 856"vendor class" which represents, in some sense, the type of host. This option
f2621c7f 857maps vendor classes to tags, so that DHCP options may be selectively delivered
a84fa1d0 858to different classes of hosts. For example
8ef5ada2 859.B dhcp-vendorclass=set:printers,Hewlett-Packard JetDirect
a84fa1d0 860will allow options to be set only for HP printers like so:
8ef5ada2 861.B --dhcp-option=tag:printers,3,192.168.4.4
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862The vendor-class string is
863substring matched against the vendor-class supplied by the client, to
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864allow fuzzy matching. The set: prefix is optional but allowed for
865consistency.
866
867Note that in IPv6 only, vendorclasses are namespaced with an
868IANA-allocated enterprise number. This is given with enterprise:
869keyword and specifies that only vendorclasses matching the specified
870number should be searched.
a222641c 871.TP
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872.B \-j, --dhcp-userclass=set:<tag>,<user-class>
873Map from a user-class string to a tag (with substring
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874matching, like vendor classes). Most DHCP clients provide a
875"user class" which is configurable. This option
f2621c7f 876maps user classes to tags, so that DHCP options may be selectively delivered
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877to different classes of hosts. It is possible, for instance to use
878this to set a different printer server for hosts in the class
879"accounts" than for hosts in the class "engineering".
a84fa1d0 880.TP
8ef5ada2 881.B \-4, --dhcp-mac=set:<tag>,<MAC address>
1adadf58 882(IPv4 only) Map from a MAC address to a tag. The MAC address may include
cdeda28f 883wildcards. For example
8ef5ada2 884.B --dhcp-mac=set:3com,01:34:23:*:*:*
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885will set the tag "3com" for any host whose MAC address matches the pattern.
886.TP
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887.B --dhcp-circuitid=set:<tag>,<circuit-id>, --dhcp-remoteid=set:<tag>,<remote-id>
888Map from RFC3046 relay agent options to tags. This data may
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889be provided by DHCP relay agents. The circuit-id or remote-id is
890normally given as colon-separated hex, but is also allowed to be a
891simple string. If an exact match is achieved between the circuit or
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892agent ID and one provided by a relay agent, the tag is set.
893
894.B dhcp-remoteid
895(but not dhcp-circuitid) is supported in IPv6.
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896.TP
897.B --dhcp-subscrid=set:<tag>,<subscriber-id>
1adadf58 898(IPv4 and IPv6) Map from RFC3993 subscriber-id relay agent options to tags.
8ef5ada2
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899.TP
900.B --dhcp-proxy[=<ip addr>]......
0793380b 901(IPv4 only) A normal DHCP relay agent is only used to forward the initial parts of
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902a DHCP interaction to the DHCP server. Once a client is configured, it
903communicates directly with the server. This is undesirable if the
904relay agent is addding extra information to the DHCP packets, such as
905that used by
906.B dhcp-circuitid
907and
908.B dhcp-remoteid.
909A full relay implementation can use the RFC 5107 serverid-override
910option to force the DHCP server to use the relay as a full proxy, with all
911packets passing through it. This flag provides an alternative method
912of doing the same thing, for relays which don't support RFC
9135107. Given alone, it manipulates the server-id for all interactions
914via relays. If a list of IP addresses is given, only interactions via
915relays at those addresses are affected.
916.TP
917.B --dhcp-match=set:<tag>,<option number>|option:<option name>|vi-encap:<enterprise>[,<value>]
918Without a value, set the tag if the client sends a DHCP
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919option of the given number or name. When a value is given, set the tag only if
920the option is sent and matches the value. The value may be of the form
921"01:ff:*:02" in which case the value must match (apart from widcards)
922but the option sent may have unmatched data past the end of the
923value. The value may also be of the same form as in
924.B dhcp-option
925in which case the option sent is treated as an array, and one element
926must match, so
927
8ef5ada2 928--dhcp-match=set:efi-ia32,option:client-arch,6
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929
930will set the tag "efi-ia32" if the the number 6 appears in the list of
931architectures sent by the client in option 93. (See RFC 4578 for
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932details.) If the value is a string, substring matching is used.
933
934The special form with vi-encap:<enterpise number> matches against
935vendor-identifying vendor classes for the specified enterprise. Please
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936see RFC 3925 for more details of these rare and interesting beasts.
937.TP
938.B --tag-if=set:<tag>[,set:<tag>[,tag:<tag>[,tag:<tag>]]]
939Perform boolean operations on tags. Any tag appearing as set:<tag> is set if
940all the tags which appear as tag:<tag> are set, (or unset when tag:!<tag> is used)
941If no tag:<tag> appears set:<tag> tags are set unconditionally.
942Any number of set: and tag: forms may appear, in any order.
943Tag-if lines ares executed in order, so if the tag in tag:<tag> is a
944tag set by another
945.B tag-if,
946the line which sets the tag must precede the one which tests it.
947.TP
948.B \-J, --dhcp-ignore=tag:<tag>[,tag:<tag>]
949When all the given tags appear in the tag set ignore the host and do
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950not allocate it a DHCP lease.
951.TP
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952.B --dhcp-ignore-names[=tag:<tag>[,tag:<tag>]]
953When all the given tags appear in the tag set, ignore any hostname
9e038946 954provided by the host. Note that, unlike dhcp-ignore, it is permissible
8ef5ada2 955to supply no tags, in which case DHCP-client supplied hostnames
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956are always ignored, and DHCP hosts are added to the DNS using only
957dhcp-host configuration in dnsmasq and the contents of /etc/hosts and
958/etc/ethers.
959.TP
8ef5ada2 960.B --dhcp-generate-names=tag:<tag>[,tag:<tag>]
1adadf58 961(IPv4 only) Generate a name for DHCP clients which do not otherwise have one,
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962using the MAC address expressed in hex, seperated by dashes. Note that
963if a host provides a name, it will be used by preference to this,
964unless
965.B --dhcp-ignore-names
966is set.
967.TP
968.B --dhcp-broadcast[=tag:<tag>[,tag:<tag>]]
1adadf58 969(IPv4 only) When all the given tags appear in the tag set, always use broadcast to
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970communicate with the host when it is unconfigured. It is permissible
971to supply no tags, in which case this is unconditional. Most DHCP clients which
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972need broadcast replies set a flag in their requests so that this
973happens automatically, some old BOOTP clients do not.
974.TP
7de060b0 975.B \-M, --dhcp-boot=[tag:<tag>,]<filename>,[<servername>[,<server address>|<tftp_servername>]]
1adadf58 976(IPv4 only) Set BOOTP options to be returned by the DHCP server. Server name and
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977address are optional: if not provided, the name is left empty, and the
978address set to the address of the machine running dnsmasq. If dnsmasq
979is providing a TFTP service (see
980.B --enable-tftp
981) then only the filename is required here to enable network booting.
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982If the optional tag(s) are given,
983they must match for this configuration to be sent.
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984Instead of an IP address, the TFTP server address can be given as a domain
985name which is looked up in /etc/hosts. This name can be associated in
986/etc/hosts with multiple IP addresses, which are used round-robin.
987This facility can be used to load balance the tftp load among a set of servers.
988.TP
989.B --dhcp-sequential-ip
990Dnsmasq is designed to choose IP addresses for DHCP clients using a
991hash of the client's MAC address. This normally allows a client's
992address to remain stable long-term, even if the client sometimes allows its DHCP
993lease to expire. In this default mode IP addresses are distributed
994pseudo-randomly over the entire available address range. There are
995sometimes circumstances (typically server deployment) where it is more
996convenient to have IP
997addresses allocated sequentially, starting from the lowest available
998address, and setting this flag enables this mode. Note that in the
999sequential mode, clients which allow a lease to expire are much more
1000likely to move IP address; for this reason it should not be generally used.
7622fc06 1001.TP
751d6f4a 1002.B --pxe-service=[tag:<tag>,]<CSA>,<menu text>[,<basename>|<bootservicetype>][,<server address>|<server_name>]
7622fc06
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1003Most uses of PXE boot-ROMS simply allow the PXE
1004system to obtain an IP address and then download the file specified by
1005.B dhcp-boot
1006and execute it. However the PXE system is capable of more complex
1007functions when supported by a suitable DHCP server.
1008
1009This specifies a boot option which may appear in a PXE boot menu. <CSA> is
1010client system type, only services of the correct type will appear in a
1011menu. The known types are x86PC, PC98, IA64_EFI, Alpha, Arc_x86,
1012Intel_Lean_Client, IA32_EFI, BC_EFI, Xscale_EFI and X86-64_EFI; an
1013integer may be used for other types. The
1014parameter after the menu text may be a file name, in which case dnsmasq acts as a
1015boot server and directs the PXE client to download the file by TFTP,
1016either from itself (
1017.B enable-tftp
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1018must be set for this to work) or another TFTP server if the final server
1019address/name is given.
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1020Note that the "layer"
1021suffix (normally ".0") is supplied by PXE, and should not be added to
1022the basename. If an integer boot service type, rather than a basename
1023is given, then the PXE client will search for a
1024suitable boot service for that type on the network. This search may be done
751d6f4a 1025by broadcast, or direct to a server if its IP address/name is provided.
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1026If no boot service type or filename is provided (or a boot service type of 0 is specified)
1027then the menu entry will abort the net boot procedure and
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1028continue booting from local media. The server address can be given as a domain
1029name which is looked up in /etc/hosts. This name can be associated in
1030/etc/hosts with multiple IP addresses, which are used round-robin.
7622fc06 1031.TP
8ef5ada2 1032.B --pxe-prompt=[tag:<tag>,]<prompt>[,<timeout>]
7622fc06
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1033Setting this provides a prompt to be displayed after PXE boot. If the
1034timeout is given then after the
1035timeout has elapsed with no keyboard input, the first available menu
1036option will be automatically executed. If the timeout is zero then the first available menu
1037item will be executed immediately. If
1038.B pxe-prompt
1039is ommitted the system will wait for user input if there are multiple
1040items in the menu, but boot immediately if
1041there is only one. See
1042.B pxe-service
1043for details of menu items.
1044
1045Dnsmasq supports PXE "proxy-DHCP", in this case another DHCP server on
1046the network is responsible for allocating IP addresses, and dnsmasq
1047simply provides the information given in
1048.B pxe-prompt
1049and
1050.B pxe-service
1051to allow netbooting. This mode is enabled using the
1052.B proxy
1053keyword in
1054.B dhcp-range.
9e4abcb5 1055.TP
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1056.B \-X, --dhcp-lease-max=<number>
1057Limits dnsmasq to the specified maximum number of DHCP leases. The
8ef5ada2 1058default is 1000. This limit is to prevent DoS attacks from hosts which
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1059create thousands of leases and use lots of memory in the dnsmasq
1060process.
1061.TP
fd9fa481 1062.B \-K, --dhcp-authoritative
1adadf58 1063(IPv4 only) Should be set when dnsmasq is definitely the only DHCP server on a network.
fd9fa481
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1064It changes the behaviour from strict RFC compliance so that DHCP requests on
1065unknown leases from unknown hosts are not ignored. This allows new hosts
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1066to get a lease without a tedious timeout under all circumstances. It also
1067allows dnsmasq to rebuild its lease database without each client needing to
9e038946
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1068reacquire a lease, if the database is lost.
1069.TP
1070.B --dhcp-alternate-port[=<server port>[,<client port>]]
1adadf58 1071(IPv4 only) Change the ports used for DHCP from the default. If this option is
9e038946
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1072given alone, without arguments, it changes the ports used for DHCP
1073from 67 and 68 to 1067 and 1068. If a single argument is given, that
1074port number is used for the server and the port number plus one used
1075for the client. Finally, two port numbers allows arbitrary
1076specification of both server and client ports for DHCP.
fd9fa481 1077.TP
9009d746 1078.B \-3, --bootp-dynamic[=<network-id>[,<network-id>]]
1adadf58 1079(IPv4 only) Enable dynamic allocation of IP addresses to BOOTP clients. Use this
3d8df260
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1080with care, since each address allocated to a BOOTP client is leased
1081forever, and therefore becomes permanently unavailable for re-use by
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1082other hosts. if this is given without tags, then it unconditionally
1083enables dynamic allocation. With tags, only when the tags are all
1084set. It may be repeated with different tag sets.
3d8df260 1085.TP
5e9e0efb 1086.B \-5, --no-ping
1adadf58 1087(IPv4 only) By default, the DHCP server will attempt to ensure that an address in
5e9e0efb
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1088not in use before allocating it to a host. It does this by sending an
1089ICMP echo request (aka "ping") to the address in question. If it gets
1090a reply, then the address must already be in use, and another is
1091tried. This flag disables this check. Use with caution.
1092.TP
f2621c7f
SK
1093.B --log-dhcp
1094Extra logging for DHCP: log all the options sent to DHCP clients and
8ef5ada2 1095the tags used to determine them.
f2621c7f 1096.TP
9e4abcb5 1097.B \-l, --dhcp-leasefile=<path>
73a08a24 1098Use the specified file to store DHCP lease information.
208b65c5 1099.TP
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1100.B --dhcp-duid=<enterprise-id>,<uid>
1101(IPv6 only) Specify the server persistent UID which the DHCPv6 server
1102will use. This option is not normally required as dnsmasq creates a
1103DUID automatically when it is first needed. When given, this option
1104provides dnsmasq the data required to create a DUID-EN type DUID. Note
1105that once set, the DUID is stored in the lease database, so to change between DUID-EN and
1106automatically created DUIDs or vice-versa, the lease database must be
1107re-intialised. The enterprise-id is assigned by IANA, and the uid is a
1108string of hex octets unique to a particular device.
1109.TP
7cebd20f 1110.B \-6 --dhcp-script=<path>
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1111Whenever a new DHCP lease is created, or an old one destroyed, or a
1112TFTP file transfer completes, the
8ef5ada2
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1113executable specified by this option is run. <path>
1114must be an absolute pathname, no PATH search occurs.
1115The arguments to the process
7cebd20f 1116are "add", "old" or "del", the MAC
1adadf58 1117address of the host (or DUID for IPv6) , the IP address, and the hostname,
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1118if known. "add" means a lease has been created, "del" means it has
1119been destroyed, "old" is a notification of an existing lease when
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1120dnsmasq starts or a change to MAC address or hostname of an existing
1121lease (also, lease length or expiry and client-id, if leasefile-ro is set).
9009d746
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1122If the MAC address is from a network type other than ethernet,
1123it will have the network type prepended, eg "06-01:23:45:67:89:ab" for
1124token ring. The process is run as root (assuming that dnsmasq was originally run as
1697269c 1125root) even if dnsmasq is configured to change UID to an unprivileged user.
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1126
1127The environment is inherited from the invoker of dnsmasq, with some or
1adadf58 1128all of the following variables added
8ef5ada2 1129
1adadf58 1130For both IPv4 and IPv6:
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1131
1132DNSMASQ_DOMAIN if the fully-qualified domain name of the host is
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1133known, this is set to the domain part. (Note that the hostname passed
1134to the script as an argument is never fully-qualified.)
8ef5ada2 1135
1adadf58
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1136If the client provides a hostname, DNSMASQ_SUPPLIED_HOSTNAME
1137
1138If the client provides user-classes, DNSMASQ_USER_CLASS0..DNSMASQ_USER_CLASSn
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1139
1140If dnsmasq was compiled with HAVE_BROKEN_RTC, then
208b65c5 1141the length of the lease (in seconds) is stored in
1697269c 1142DNSMASQ_LEASE_LENGTH, otherwise the time of lease expiry is stored in
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1143DNSMASQ_LEASE_EXPIRES. The number of seconds until lease expiry is
1144always stored in DNSMASQ_TIME_REMAINING.
8ef5ada2 1145
5aabfc78 1146If a lease used to have a hostname, which is
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1147removed, an "old" event is generated with the new state of the lease,
1148ie no name, and the former name is provided in the environment
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1149variable DNSMASQ_OLD_HOSTNAME.
1150
1151DNSMASQ_INTERFACE stores the name of
9e038946 1152the interface on which the request arrived; this is not set for "old"
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1153actions when dnsmasq restarts.
1154
1155DNSMASQ_RELAY_ADDRESS is set if the client
316e2730 1156used a DHCP relay to contact dnsmasq and the IP address of the relay
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1157is known.
1158
1159DNSMASQ_TAGS contains all the tags set during the
316e2730 1160DHCP transaction, separated by spaces.
8ef5ada2 1161
e46164e0
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1162DNSMASQ_LOG_DHCP is set if
1163.B --log-dhcp
1164is in effect.
a9530964 1165
1adadf58
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1166For IPv4 only:
1167
1168DNSMASQ_CLIENT_ID if the host provided a client-id.
1169
1170If the client provides vendor-class, DNSMASQ_VENDOR_CLASS.
1171
1172For IPv6 only:
1173
1174If the client provides vendor-class, DNSMASQ_VENDOR_CLASS_ID,
1175containing the IANA enterprise id for the class, and
1176DNSMASQ_VENDOR_CLASS0..DNSMASQ_VENDOR_CLASSn for the data.
1177
57f460de 1178DNSMASQ_SERVER_DUID containing the DUID of the server: this is the same for
1adadf58
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1179every call to the script.
1180
1181DNSMASQ_IAID containing the IAID for the lease. If the lease is a
1182temporary allocation, this is prefixed to 'T'.
1183
1184
1185
1186Note that the supplied hostname, vendorclass and userclass data is
1187only supplied for
1188"add" actions or "old" actions when a host resumes an existing lease,
1189since these data are not held in dnsmasq's lease
1190database.
1191
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1192
1193
9e038946 1194All file descriptors are
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1195closed except stdin, stdout and stderr which are open to /dev/null
1196(except in debug mode).
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1197
1198The script is not invoked concurrently: at most one instance
1199of the script is ever running (dnsmasq waits for an instance of script to exit
1200before running the next). Changes to the lease database are which
1201require the script to be invoked are queued awaiting exit of a running instance.
1202If this queueing allows multiple state changes occur to a single
1203lease before the script can be run then
1204earlier states are discarded and the current state of that lease is
1205reflected when the script finally runs.
1206
1207At dnsmasq startup, the script will be invoked for
7cebd20f 1208all existing leases as they are read from the lease file. Expired
8ef5ada2 1209leases will be called with "del" and others with "old". When dnsmasq
5aabfc78 1210receives a HUP signal, the script will be invoked for existing leases
9e038946 1211with an "old " event.
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1212
1213
1214There are two further actions which may appear as the first argument
1215to the script, "init" and "tftp". More may be added in the future, so
1216scripts should be written to ignore unknown actions. "init" is
e46164e0 1217described below in
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1218.B --leasefile-ro
1219The "tftp" action is invoked when a TFTP file transfer completes: the
1220arguments are the file size in bytes, the address to which the file
1221was sent, and the complete pathname of the file.
1222
9e038946 1223.TP
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1224.B --dhcp-luascript=<path>
1225Specify a script written in Lua, to be run when leases are created,
1226destroyed or changed. To use this option, dnsmasq must be compiled
1227with the correct support. The Lua interpreter is intialised once, when
1228dnsmasq starts, so that global variables persist between lease
1229events. The Lua code must define a
1230.B lease
1231function, and may provide
1232.B init
1233and
1234.B shutdown
1235functions, which are called, without arguments when dnsmasq starts up
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1236and terminates. It may also provide a
1237.B tftp
1238function.
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1239
1240The
1241.B lease
a9530964 1242function receives the information detailed in
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1243.B --dhcp-script.
1244It gets two arguments, firstly the action, which is a string
1245containing, "add", "old" or "del", and secondly a table of tag value
1246pairs. The tags mostly correspond to the environment variables
1247detailed above, for instance the tag "domain" holds the same data as
1248the environment variable DNSMASQ_DOMAIN. There are a few extra tags
1249which hold the data supplied as arguments to
1250.B --dhcp-script.
1251These are
1252.B mac_address, ip_address
1253and
1254.B hostname
1255for IPv4, and
1256.B client_duid, ip_address
1257and
1258.B hostname
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1259for IPv6.
1260
1261The
1262.B tftp
1263function is called in the same way as the lease function, and the
1264table holds the tags
1265.B destination_address,
1266.B file_name
1267and
1268.B file_size.
57f460de 1269.TP
9e038946 1270.B --dhcp-scriptuser
57f460de 1271Specify the user as which to run the lease-change script or Lua script. This defaults to root, but can be changed to another user using this flag.
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1272.TP
1273.B \-9, --leasefile-ro
1274Completely suppress use of the lease database file. The file will not
1275be created, read, or written. Change the way the lease-change
1276script (if one is provided) is called, so that the lease database may
1277be maintained in external storage by the script. In addition to the
f2621c7f 1278invocations given in
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1279.B --dhcp-script
1280the lease-change script is called once, at dnsmasq startup, with the
1281single argument "init". When called like this the script should write
1282the saved state of the lease database, in dnsmasq leasefile format, to
1283stdout and exit with zero exit code. Setting this
1284option also forces the leasechange script to be called on changes
1285to the client-id and lease length and expiry time.
9e4abcb5 1286.TP
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1287.B --bridge-interface=<interface>,<alias>[,<alias>]
1288Treat DHCP request packets arriving at any of the <alias> interfaces
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1289as if they had arrived at <interface>. This option is necessary when
1290using "old style" bridging on BSD platforms, since
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1291packets arrive at tap interfaces which don't have an IP address.
1292.TP
28866e95 1293.B \-s, --domain=<domain>[,<address range>[,local]]
9009d746
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1294Specifies DNS domains for the DHCP server. Domains may be be given
1295unconditionally (without the IP range) or for limited IP ranges. This has two effects;
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1296firstly it causes the DHCP server to return the domain to any hosts
1297which request it, and secondly it sets the domain which it is legal
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1298for DHCP-configured hosts to claim. The intention is to constrain
1299hostnames so that an untrusted host on the LAN cannot advertise
1300its name via dhcp as e.g. "microsoft.com" and capture traffic not
1301meant for it. If no domain suffix is specified, then any DHCP
1302hostname with a domain part (ie with a period) will be disallowed
1303and logged. If suffix is specified, then hostnames with a domain
1304part are allowed, provided the domain part matches the suffix. In
1305addition, when a suffix is set then hostnames without a domain
1306part have the suffix added as an optional domain part. Eg on my network I can set
3d8df260 1307.B --domain=thekelleys.org.uk
9e4abcb5
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1308and have a machine whose DHCP hostname is "laptop". The IP address for that machine is available from
1309.B dnsmasq
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1310both as "laptop" and "laptop.thekelleys.org.uk". If the domain is
1311given as "#" then the domain is read from the first "search" directive
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1312in /etc/resolv.conf (or equivalent).
1313
1314The address range can be of the form
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1315<ip address>,<ip address> or <ip address>/<netmask> or just a single
1316<ip address>. See
1317.B --dhcp-fqdn
1318which can change the behaviour of dnsmasq with domains.
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1319
1320If the address range is given as ip-address/network-size, then a
1321additional flag "local" may be supplied which has the effect of adding
1322--local declarations for forward and reverse DNS queries. Eg.
1323.B --domain=thekelleys.org.uk,192.168.0.0/24,local
1324is identical to
1325.B --domain=thekelleys.org.uk,192.168.0.0/24
1326--local=/thekelleys.org.uk/ --local=/0.168.192.in-addr.arpa/
1327The network size must be 8, 16 or 24 for this to be legal.
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1328.TP
1329.B --dhcp-fqdn
1330In the default mode, dnsmasq inserts the unqualified names of
1331DHCP clients into the DNS. For this reason, the names must be unique,
1332even if two clients which have the same name are in different
1333domains. If a second DHCP client appears which has the same name as an
1334existing client, the name is transfered to the new client. If
1335.B --dhcp-fqdn
1336is set, this behaviour changes: the unqualified name is no longer
1337put in the DNS, only the qualified name. Two DHCP clients with the
1338same name may both keep the name, provided that the domain part is
1339different (ie the fully qualified names differ.) To ensure that all
1340names have a domain part, there must be at least
1341.B --domain
1342without an address specified when
1343.B --dhcp-fqdn
1344is set.
9e4abcb5 1345.TP
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1346.B --dhcp-client-update
1347Normally, when giving a DHCP lease, dnsmasq sets flags in the FQDN
1348option to tell the client not to attempt a DDNS update with its name
1349and IP address. This is because the name-IP pair is automatically
1350added into dnsmasq's DNS view. This flag suppresses that behaviour,
1351this is useful, for instance, to allow Windows clients to update
1352Active Directory servers. See RFC 4702 for details.
1353.TP
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1354.B --enable-ra
1355Enable dnsmasq's IPv6 Router Advertisement feature. DHCPv6 doesn't
1356handle complete network configuration in the same way as DHCPv4. Router
1357discovery and (possibly) prefix discovery for autonomous address
1358creation are handled by a different protocol. When DHCP is in use,
1359only a subset of this is needed, and dnsmasq can handle it, using
1360existing DHCP configuration to provide most data. When RA is enabled,
1361dnsmasq will advertise a prefix for each dhcp-range, with default
1362router and recursive DNS server as the relevant link-local address on
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1363the machine running dnsmasq. By default, he "managed address" bits are set, and
1364the "use SLAAC" bit is reset. This can be changed for individual
1365subnets with the mode keywords described in
1366.B --dhcp-range.
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1367RFC6106 DNS parameters are included in the advertisements. By default,
1368the relevant link-local address of the machine running dnsmasq is sent
1369as recursive DNS server. If provided, the DHCPv6 options dns-server and
1370domain-search are used for RDNSS and DNSSL.
c5ad4e79 1371.TP
8ef5ada2 1372.B --enable-tftp[=<interface>]
832af0ba 1373Enable the TFTP server function. This is deliberately limited to that
9e038946 1374needed to net-boot a client. Only reading is allowed; the tsize and
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1375blksize extensions are supported (tsize is only supported in octet
1376mode). See NOTES section for use of the interface argument.
1377
832af0ba 1378.TP
8ef5ada2 1379.B --tftp-root=<directory>[,<interface>]
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1380Look for files to transfer using TFTP relative to the given
1381directory. When this is set, TFTP paths which include ".." are
1382rejected, to stop clients getting outside the specified root.
f2621c7f 1383Absolute paths (starting with /) are allowed, but they must be within
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1384the tftp-root. If the optional interface argument is given, the
1385directory is only used for TFTP requests via that interface.
832af0ba 1386.TP
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1387.B --tftp-unique-root
1388Add the IP address of the TFTP client as a path component on the end
1389of the TFTP-root (in standard dotted-quad format). Only valid if a
1390tftp-root is set and the directory exists. For instance, if tftp-root is "/tftp" and client
13911.2.3.4 requests file "myfile" then the effective path will be
1392"/tftp/1.2.3.4/myfile" if /tftp/1.2.3.4 exists or /tftp/myfile otherwise.
1393.TP
832af0ba 1394.B --tftp-secure
5aabfc78 1395Enable TFTP secure mode: without this, any file which is readable by
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1396the dnsmasq process under normal unix access-control rules is
1397available via TFTP. When the --tftp-secure flag is given, only files
1398owned by the user running the dnsmasq process are accessible. If
1399dnsmasq is being run as root, different rules apply: --tftp-secure
1b7ecd11 1400has no effect, but only files which have the world-readable bit set
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1401are accessible. It is not recommended to run dnsmasq as root with TFTP
1402enabled, and certainly not without specifying --tftp-root. Doing so
1403can expose any world-readable file on the server to any host on the net.
1404.TP
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1405.B --tftp-lowercase
1406Convert filenames in TFTP requests to all lowercase. This is useful
1407for requests from Windows machines, which have case-insensitive
1408filesystems and tend to play fast-and-loose with case in filenames.
1409Note that dnsmasq's tftp server always converts "\\" to "/" in filenames.
1410.TP
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1411.B --tftp-max=<connections>
1412Set the maximum number of concurrent TFTP connections allowed. This
1413defaults to 50. When serving a large number of TFTP connections,
1414per-process file descriptor limits may be encountered. Dnsmasq needs
1415one file descriptor for each concurrent TFTP connection and one
1416file descriptor per unique file (plus a few others). So serving the
1417same file simultaneously to n clients will use require about n + 10 file
1418descriptors, serving different files simultaneously to n clients will
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1419require about (2*n) + 10 descriptors. If
1420.B --tftp-port-range
1421is given, that can affect the number of concurrent connections.
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1422.TP
1423.B --tftp-no-blocksize
1424Stop the TFTP server from negotiating the "blocksize" option with a
1425client. Some buggy clients request this option but then behave badly
1426when it is granted.
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1427.TP
1428.B --tftp-port-range=<start>,<end>
1429A TFTP server listens on a well-known port (69) for connection initiation,
1430but it also uses a dynamically-allocated port for each
1431connection. Normally these are allocated by the OS, but this option
1432specifies a range of ports for use by TFTP transfers. This can be
1433useful when TFTP has to traverse a firewall. The start of the range
1434cannot be lower than 1025 unless dnsmasq is running as root. The number
1435of concurrent TFTP connections is limited by the size of the port range.
832af0ba 1436.TP
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1437.B \-C, --conf-file=<file>
1438Specify a different configuration file. The conf-file option is also allowed in
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1439configuration files, to include multiple configuration files. A
1440filename of "-" causes dnsmasq to read configuration from stdin.
849a8357 1441.TP
1f15b81d 1442.B \-7, --conf-dir=<directory>[,<file-extension>......]
849a8357 1443Read all the files in the given directory as configuration
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1444files. If extension(s) are given, any files which end in those
1445extensions are skipped. Any files whose names end in ~ or start with . or start and end
1446with # are always skipped. This flag may be given on the command
849a8357 1447line or in a configuration file.
9e4abcb5 1448.SH CONFIG FILE
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1449At startup, dnsmasq reads
1450.I /etc/dnsmasq.conf,
1451if it exists. (On
1452FreeBSD, the file is
1453.I /usr/local/etc/dnsmasq.conf
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1454) (but see the
1455.B \-C
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1456and
1457.B \-7
1458options.) The format of this
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1459file consists of one option per line, exactly as the long options detailed
1460in the OPTIONS section but without the leading "--". Lines starting with # are comments and ignored. For
b49644f3 1461options which may only be specified once, the configuration file overrides
b8187c80 1462the command line. Quoting is allowed in a config file:
3d8df260 1463between " quotes the special meanings of ,:. and # are removed and the
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1464following escapes are allowed: \\\\ \\" \\t \\e \\b \\r and \\n. The later
1465corresponding to tab, escape, backspace, return and newline.
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1466.SH NOTES
1467When it receives a SIGHUP,
1468.B dnsmasq
3be34541 1469clears its cache and then re-loads
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1470.I /etc/hosts
1471and
1472.I /etc/ethers
824af85b 1473and any file given by --dhcp-hostsfile, --dhcp-optsfile or --addn-hosts.
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1474The dhcp lease change script is called for all
1475existing DHCP leases. If
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1476.B
1477--no-poll
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1478is set SIGHUP also re-reads
1479.I /etc/resolv.conf.
1480SIGHUP
b49644f3 1481does NOT re-read the configuration file.
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1482.PP
1483When it receives a SIGUSR1,
1484.B dnsmasq
824af85b 1485writes statistics to the system log. It writes the cache size,
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1486the number of names which have had to removed from the cache before
1487they expired in order to make room for new names and the total number
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1488of names that have been inserted into the cache. For each upstream
1489server it gives the number of queries sent, and the number which
1490resulted in an error. In
9e4abcb5 1491.B --no-daemon
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1492mode or when full logging is enabled (-q), a complete dump of the
1493contents of the cache is made.
1494.PP
1495When it receives SIGUSR2 and it is logging direct to a file (see
1496.B --log-facility
1497)
1498.B dnsmasq
1499will close and reopen the log file. Note that during this operation,
1500dnsmasq will not be running as root. When it first creates the logfile
1501dnsmasq changes the ownership of the file to the non-root user it will run
1502as. Logrotate should be configured to create a new log file with
9e038946 1503the ownership which matches the existing one before sending SIGUSR2.
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1504If TCP DNS queries are in progress, the old logfile will remain open in
1505child processes which are handling TCP queries and may continue to be
1506written. There is a limit of 150 seconds, after which all existing TCP
1507processes will have expired: for this reason, it is not wise to
1508configure logfile compression for logfiles which have just been
1509rotated. Using logrotate, the required options are
1510.B create
1511and
1512.B delaycompress.
1513
1514
9e4abcb5 1515.PP
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1516Dnsmasq is a DNS query forwarder: it it not capable of recursively
1517answering arbitrary queries starting from the root servers but
1518forwards such queries to a fully recursive upstream DNS server which is
1519typically provided by an ISP. By default, dnsmasq reads
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1520.I /etc/resolv.conf
1521to discover the IP
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1522addresses of the upstream nameservers it should use, since the
1523information is typically stored there. Unless
1524.B --no-poll
1525is used,
1526.B dnsmasq
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1527checks the modification time of
1528.I /etc/resolv.conf
1529(or equivalent if
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1530.B \--resolv-file
1531is used) and re-reads it if it changes. This allows the DNS servers to
1532be set dynamically by PPP or DHCP since both protocols provide the
1533information.
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1534Absence of
1535.I /etc/resolv.conf
1536is not an error
9e4abcb5 1537since it may not have been created before a PPP connection exists. Dnsmasq
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1538simply keeps checking in case
1539.I /etc/resolv.conf
1540is created at any
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1541time. Dnsmasq can be told to parse more than one resolv.conf
1542file. This is useful on a laptop, where both PPP and DHCP may be used:
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1543dnsmasq can be set to poll both
1544.I /etc/ppp/resolv.conf
1545and
1546.I /etc/dhcpc/resolv.conf
1547and will use the contents of whichever changed
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1548last, giving automatic switching between DNS servers.
1549.PP
1550Upstream servers may also be specified on the command line or in
b49644f3 1551the configuration file. These server specifications optionally take a
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1552domain name which tells dnsmasq to use that server only to find names
1553in that particular domain.
1554.PP
1555In order to configure dnsmasq to act as cache for the host on which it is running, put "nameserver 127.0.0.1" in
1556.I /etc/resolv.conf
1557to force local processes to send queries to
1558dnsmasq. Then either specify the upstream servers directly to dnsmasq
1559using
1560.B \--server
1561options or put their addresses real in another file, say
1562.I /etc/resolv.dnsmasq
1563and run dnsmasq with the
1564.B \-r /etc/resolv.dnsmasq
1565option. This second technique allows for dynamic update of the server
1566addresses by PPP or DHCP.
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1567.PP
1568Addresses in /etc/hosts will "shadow" different addresses for the same
1569names in the upstream DNS, so "mycompany.com 1.2.3.4" in /etc/hosts will ensure that
1570queries for "mycompany.com" always return 1.2.3.4 even if queries in
1571the upstream DNS would otherwise return a different address. There is
1572one exception to this: if the upstream DNS contains a CNAME which
1573points to a shadowed name, then looking up the CNAME through dnsmasq
1574will result in the unshadowed address associated with the target of
1575the CNAME. To work around this, add the CNAME to /etc/hosts so that
1576the CNAME is shadowed too.
1577
3be34541 1578.PP
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1579The tag system works as follows: For each DHCP request, dnsmasq
1580collects a set of valid tags from active configuration lines which
1581include set:<tag>, including one from the
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1582.B dhcp-range
1583used to allocate the address, one from any matching
1584.B dhcp-host
9009d746 1585(and "known" if a dhcp-host matches)
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1586The tag "bootp" is set for BOOTP requests, and a tag whose name is the
1587name of the interface on which the request arrived is also set.
1588
1589Any configuration lines which includes one or more tag:<tag> contructs
1590will only be valid if all that tags are matched in the set derived
1591above. Typically this is dhcp-option.
26128d27 1592.B dhcp-option
8ef5ada2 1593which has tags will be used in preference to an untagged
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1594.B dhcp-option,
1595provided that _all_ the tags match somewhere in the
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1596set collected as described above. The prefix '!' on a tag means 'not'
1597so --dhcp=option=tag:!purple,3,1.2.3.4 sends the option when the
1598tag purple is not in the set of valid tags. (If using this in a
1599command line rather than a configuration file, be sure to escape !,
1600which is a shell metacharacter)
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1601
1602When selecting dhcp-options, a tag from dhcp-range is second class
1603relative to other tags, to make it easy to override options for
1604individual hosts, so
1605.B dhcp-range=set:interface1,......
1606.B dhcp-host=set:myhost,.....
1607.B dhcp-option=tag:interface1,option:nis-domain,"domain1"
1608.B dhcp-option=tag:myhost,option:nis-domain,"domain2"
1609will set the NIS-domain to domain1 for hosts in the range, but
1610override that to domain2 for a particular host.
1611
26128d27 1612.PP
8ef5ada2 1613Note that for
f6b7dc47 1614.B dhcp-range
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1615both tag:<tag> and set:<tag> are allowed, to both select the range in
1616use based on (eg) dhcp-host, and to affect the options sent, based on
1617the range selected.
1618
1619This system evolved from an earlier, more limited one and for backward
1620compatibility "net:" may be used instead of "tag:" and "set:" may be
1621omitted. (Except in
1622.B dhcp-host,
1623where "net:" may be used instead of "set:".) For the same reason, '#'
1624may be used instead of '!' to indicate NOT.
f6b7dc47 1625.PP
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1626The DHCP server in dnsmasq will function as a BOOTP server also,
1627provided that the MAC address and IP address for clients are given,
1628either using
1629.B dhcp-host
1630configurations or in
1631.I /etc/ethers
1632, and a
1633.B dhcp-range
1634configuration option is present to activate the DHCP server
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1635on a particular network. (Setting --bootp-dynamic removes the need for
1636static address mappings.) The filename
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1637parameter in a BOOTP request is used as a tag,
1638as is the tag "bootp", allowing some control over the options returned to
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1639different classes of hosts.
1640
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1641.B dhcp-range
1642may have an interface name supplied as
1643"interface:<interface-name>". The semantics if this are as follows:
1644For DHCP, if any other dhcp-range exists _without_ an interface name,
1645then the interface name is ignored and and dnsmasq behaves as if the
1646interface parts did not exist, otherwise DHCP is only provided to
1647interfaces mentioned in dhcp-range
1648declarations. For DNS, if there are no
1649.B --interface
1650or
1651.B --listen-address
1652flags, behaviour is unchanged by the interface part. If either of
1653these flags are present, the interfaces mentioned in
1654dhcp-ranges are added to the set which get DNS service.
1655
1656Similarly,
1657.B enable-tftp
1658may take an interface name, which enables TFTP only for a particular
1659interface, ignoring
1660.B --interface
1661or
1662.B --listen-address
1663flags. In addition
1664.B --tftp-secure
1665and
1666.B --tftp-unique-root
1667and
1668.B --tftp-no-blocksize
1669are ignored for requests from such interfaces. (A
1670.B --tftp-root
1671directive giving a root path and an interface should be
1672provided too.)
1673
1674These rules may seem odd at first sight, but they
1675allow a single line of the form "dhcp-range=interface:virt0,192.168.0.4,192.168.0.200"
1676to be added to dnsmasq configuration which then supplies
1677DHCP and DNS services to that interface, without affecting
1678what services are supplied to other interfaces and irrespective of
1679the existance or lack of "interface=<interface>"
1680lines elsewhere in the dnsmasq configuration.
1681"enable-tftp=virt0" and "tftp-root=<root>,virt0" do the same job for TFTP.
1682 The idea is
1683that such a line can be added automatically by libvirt
1684or equivalent systems, without disturbing any manual
1685configuration.
1686
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1687.SH EXIT CODES
1688.PP
16890 - Dnsmasq successfully forked into the background, or terminated
1690normally if backgrounding is not enabled.
1691.PP
16921 - A problem with configuration was detected.
1693.PP
16942 - A problem with network access occurred (address in use, attempt
1695to use privileged ports without permission).
1696.PP
9e038946 16973 - A problem occurred with a filesystem operation (missing
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1698file/directory, permissions).
1699.PP
17004 - Memory allocation failure.
1701.PP
17025 - Other miscellaneous problem.
1703.PP
170411 or greater - a non zero return code was received from the
1705lease-script process "init" call. The exit code from dnsmasq is the
1706script's exit code with 10 added.
1707
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1708.SH LIMITS
1709The default values for resource limits in dnsmasq are generally
1710conservative, and appropriate for embedded router type devices with
1711slow processors and limited memory. On more capable hardware, it is
1712possible to increase the limits, and handle many more clients. The
1713following applies to dnsmasq-2.37: earlier versions did not scale as well.
1714
1715.PP
1716Dnsmasq is capable of handling DNS and DHCP for at least a thousand
8ef5ada2 1717clients. The DHCP lease times should not be very short (less than one hour). The
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1718value of
1719.B --dns-forward-max
1720can be increased: start with it equal to
1721the number of clients and increase if DNS seems slow. Note that DNS
1722performance depends too on the performance of the upstream
1723nameservers. The size of the DNS cache may be increased: the hard
1724limit is 10000 names and the default (150) is very low. Sending
1725SIGUSR1 to dnsmasq makes it log information which is useful for tuning
1726the cache size. See the
1727.B NOTES
1728section for details.
1729
1730.PP
1731The built-in TFTP server is capable of many simultaneous file
1732transfers: the absolute limit is related to the number of file-handles
1733allowed to a process and the ability of the select() system call to
1734cope with large numbers of file handles. If the limit is set too high
1735using
1736.B --tftp-max
1737it will be scaled down and the actual limit logged at
1738start-up. Note that more transfers are possible when the same file is
1739being sent than when each transfer sends a different file.
1740
1741.PP
1742It is possible to use dnsmasq to block Web advertising by using a list
1743of known banner-ad servers, all resolving to 127.0.0.1 or 0.0.0.0, in
1744.B /etc/hosts
1745or an additional hosts file. The list can be very long,
1746dnsmasq has been tested successfully with one million names. That size
1747file needs a 1GHz processor and about 60Mb of RAM.
1748
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1749.SH INTERNATIONALISATION
1750Dnsmasq can be compiled to support internationalisation. To do this,
1751the make targets "all-i18n" and "install-i18n" should be used instead of
1752the standard targets "all" and "install". When internationalisation
1753is compiled in, dnsmasq will produce log messages in the local
1754language and support internationalised domain names (IDN). Domain
1755names in /etc/hosts, /etc/ethers and /etc/dnsmasq.conf which contain
1756non-ASCII characters will be translated to the DNS-internal punycode
1757representation. Note that
1758dnsmasq determines both the language for messages and the assumed
1759charset for configuration
1760files from the LANG environment variable. This should be set to the system
1761default value by the script which is responsible for starting
1762dnsmasq. When editing the configuration files, be careful to do so
1763using only the system-default locale and not user-specific one, since
1764dnsmasq has no direct way of determining the charset in use, and must
1765assume that it is the system default.
1766
9e4abcb5 1767.SH FILES
b49644f3
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1768.IR /etc/dnsmasq.conf
1769
1770.IR /usr/local/etc/dnsmasq.conf
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1771
1772.IR /etc/resolv.conf
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1773.IR /var/run/dnsmasq/resolv.conf
1774.IR /etc/ppp/resolv.conf
1775.IR /etc/dhcpc/resolv.conf
9e4abcb5
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1776
1777.IR /etc/hosts
1778
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1779.IR /etc/ethers
1780
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1781.IR /var/lib/misc/dnsmasq.leases
1782
1783.IR /var/db/dnsmasq.leases
9e4abcb5
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1784
1785.IR /var/run/dnsmasq.pid
1786.SH SEE ALSO
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1787.BR hosts (5),
1788.BR resolver (5)
1789.SH AUTHOR
1790This manual page was written by Simon Kelley <simon@thekelleys.org.uk>.
1791
1792