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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
9is a lightweight DNS, TFTP and DHCP server. It is intended to provide
10coupled DNS and DHCP service to a LAN.
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
18The dnsmasq DHCP server supports static address assignments and multiple
19networks. It automatically
20sends a sensible default set of DHCP options, and can be configured to
21send any desired set of DHCP options, including vendor-encapsulated
22options. It includes a secure, read-only,
23TFTP server to allow net/PXE boot of DHCP hosts and also supports BOOTP.
24.PP
25Dnsmasq
26supports IPv6 for all functions and a minimal router-advertisemnet daemon.
27.SH OPTIONS
28Note that in general missing parameters are allowed and switch off
29functions, for instance "--pid-file" disables writing a PID file. On
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.
33.TP
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
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
43only the specified file. This option may be repeated for more than one
44additional hosts file. If a directory is given, then read all the files contained in that directory.
45.TP
46.B \-E, --expand-hosts
47Add the domain to simple names (without a period) in /etc/hosts
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.
50.TP
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
54that the requester should not itself cache the information. This is
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
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
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
74.B \-k, --keep-in-foreground
75Do not go into the background at startup but otherwise run as
76normal. This is intended for use when dnsmasq is run under daemontools
77or launchd.
78.TP
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
82SIGUSR1, log to stderr as well as syslog, don't fork new processes
83to handle TCP queries.
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
88.B \-8, --log-facility=<facility>
89Set the facility to which dnsmasq will send syslog entries, this
90defaults to DAEMON, and to LOCAL0 when debug mode is in operation. If
91the facility given contains at least one '/' character, it is taken to
92be a filename, and dnsmasq logs to the given file, instead of
93syslog. If the facility is '-' then dnsmasq logs to stderr.
94(Errors whilst reading configuration will still go to syslog,
95but all output from a successful startup, and all output whilst
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.
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.
110.TP
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
116privileges after startup by changing id to another user. Normally this user is "nobody" but that
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>
128Listen on <port> instead of the standard DNS port (53). Setting this
129to zero completely disables DNS function, leaving only DHCP and/or TFTP.
130.TP
131.B \-P, --edns-packet-max=<size>
132Specify the largest EDNS.0 UDP packet which is supported by the DNS
133forwarder. Defaults to 4096, which is the RFC5625-recommended size.
134.TP
135.B \-Q, --query-port=<query_port>
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.
148.TP
149.B \-i, --interface=<interface name>
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
156or
157.B \--listen-address
158options are given dnsmasq listens on all available interfaces except any
159given in
160.B \--except-interface
161options. IP alias interfaces (eg "eth1:0") cannot be used with
162.B --interface
163or
164.B --except-interface
165options, use --listen-address instead.
166.TP
167.B \-I, --except-interface=<interface name>
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.
176.TP
177.B \-2, --no-dhcp-interface=<interface name>
178Do not provide DHCP or TFTP on the specified interface, but do provide DNS service.
179.TP
180.B \-a, --listen-address=<ipaddr>
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.
195.TP
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
203running another nameserver (or another instance of dnsmasq) on the
204same machine. Setting this option also enables multiple instances of
205dnsmasq which provide DHCP service to run in the same machine.
206.TP
207.B \-y, --localise-queries
208Return answers to DNS queries from /etc/hosts which depend on the interface over which the query was
209received. If a name in /etc/hosts has more than one address associated with
210it, and at least one of those addresses is on the same subnet as the
211interface to which the query was sent, then return only the
212address(es) on that subnet. This allows for a server to have multiple
213addresses in /etc/hosts corresponding to each of its interfaces, and
214hosts will get the correct address based on which network they are
215attached to. Currently this facility is limited to IPv4.
216.TP
217.B \-b, --bogus-priv
218Bogus private reverse lookups. All reverse lookups for private IP ranges (ie 192.168.x.x, etc)
219which are not found in /etc/hosts or the DHCP leases file are answered
220with "no such domain" rather than being forwarded upstream.
221.TP
222.B \-V, --alias=[<old-ip>]|[<start-ip>-<end-ip>],<new-ip>[,<mask>]
223Modify IPv4 addresses returned from upstream nameservers; old-ip is
224replaced by new-ip. If the optional mask is given then any address
225which matches the masked old-ip will be re-written. So, for instance
226.B --alias=1.2.3.0,6.7.8.0,255.255.255.0
227will map 1.2.3.56 to 6.7.8.56 and 1.2.3.67 to 6.7.8.67. This is what
228Cisco PIX routers call "DNS doctoring". If the old IP is given as
229range, then only addresses in the range, rather than a whole subnet,
230are re-written. So
231.B --alias=192.168.0.10-192.168.0.40,10.0.0.0,255.255.255.0
232maps 192.168.0.10->192.168.0.40 to 10.0.0.10->10.0.0.40
233.TP
234.B \-B, --bogus-nxdomain=<ipaddr>
235Transform replies which contain the IP address given into "No such
236domain" replies. This is intended to counteract a devious move made by
237Verisign in September 2003 when they started returning the address of
238an advertising web page in response to queries for unregistered names,
239instead of the correct NXDOMAIN response. This option tells dnsmasq to
240fake the correct response when it sees this behaviour. As at Sept 2003
241the IP address being returned by Verisign is 64.94.110.11
242.TP
243.B \-f, --filterwin2k
244Later versions of windows make periodic DNS requests which don't get sensible answers from
245the public DNS and can cause problems by triggering dial-on-demand links. This flag turns on an option
246to filter such requests. The requests blocked are for records of types SOA and SRV, and type ANY where the
247requested name has underscores, to catch LDAP requests.
248.TP
249.B \-r, --resolv-file=<file>
250Read the IP addresses of the upstream nameservers from <file>, instead of
251/etc/resolv.conf. For the format of this file see
252.BR resolv.conf (5).
253The only lines relevant to dnsmasq are nameserver ones. Dnsmasq can
254be told to poll more than one resolv.conf file, the first file name specified
255overrides the default, subsequent ones add to the list. This is only
256allowed when polling; the file with the currently latest modification
257time is the one used.
258.TP
259.B \-R, --no-resolv
260Don't read /etc/resolv.conf. Get upstream servers only from the command
261line or the dnsmasq configuration file.
262.TP
263.B \-1, --enable-dbus
264Allow dnsmasq configuration to be updated via DBus method calls. The
265configuration which can be changed is upstream DNS servers (and
266corresponding domains) and cache clear. Requires that dnsmasq has
267been built with DBus support.
268.TP
269.B \-o, --strict-order
270By default, dnsmasq will send queries to any of the upstream servers
271it knows about and tries to favour servers that are known to
272be up. Setting this flag forces dnsmasq to try each query with each
273server strictly in the order they appear in /etc/resolv.conf
274.TP
275.B --all-servers
276By default, when dnsmasq has more than one upstream server available,
277it will send queries to just one server. Setting this flag forces
278dnsmasq to send all queries to all available servers. The reply from
279the server which answers first will be returned to the original requester.
280.TP
281.B --stop-dns-rebind
282Reject (and log) addresses from upstream nameservers which are in the
283private IP ranges. This blocks an attack where a browser behind a
284firewall is used to probe machines on the local network.
285.TP
286.B --rebind-localhost-ok
287Exempt 127.0.0.0/8 from rebinding checks. This address range is
288returned by realtime black hole servers, so blocking it may disable
289these services.
290.TP
291.B --rebind-domain-ok=[<domain>]|[[/<domain>/[<domain>/]
292Do not detect and block dns-rebind on queries to these domains. The
293argument may be either a single domain, or multiple domains surrounded
294by '/', like the --server syntax, eg.
295.B --rebind-domain-ok=/domain1/domain2/domain3/
296.TP
297.B \-n, --no-poll
298Don't poll /etc/resolv.conf for changes.
299.TP
300.B --clear-on-reload
301Whenever /etc/resolv.conf is re-read, clear the DNS cache.
302This is useful when new nameservers may have different
303data than that held in cache.
304.TP
305.B \-D, --domain-needed
306Tells dnsmasq to never forward A or AAAA queries for plain names, without dots
307or domain parts, to upstream nameservers. If the name is not known
308from /etc/hosts or DHCP then a "not found" answer is returned.
309.TP
310.B \-S, --local, --server=[/[<domain>]/[domain/]][<ipaddr>[#<port>][@<source-ip>|<interface>[#<port>]]
311Specify IP address of upstream servers directly. Setting this flag does
312not suppress reading of /etc/resolv.conf, use -R to do that. If one or
313more
314optional domains are given, that server is used only for those domains
315and they are queried only using the specified server. This is
316intended for private nameservers: if you have a nameserver on your
317network which deals with names of the form
318xxx.internal.thekelleys.org.uk at 192.168.1.1 then giving the flag
319.B -S /internal.thekelleys.org.uk/192.168.1.1
320will send all queries for
321internal machines to that nameserver, everything else will go to the
322servers in /etc/resolv.conf. An empty domain specification,
323.B //
324has the special meaning of "unqualified names only" ie names without any
325dots in them. A non-standard port may be specified as
326part of the IP
327address using a # character.
328More than one -S flag is allowed, with
329repeated domain or ipaddr parts as required.
330
331More specific domains take precendence over less specific domains, so:
332.B --server=/google.com/1.2.3.4
333.B --server=/www.google.com/2.3.4.5
334will send queries for *.google.com to 1.2.3.4, except *www.google.com,
335which will go to 2.3.4.5
336
337The special server address '#' means, "use the standard servers", so
338.B --server=/google.com/1.2.3.4
339.B --server=/www.google.com/#
340will send queries for *.google.com to 1.2.3.4, except *www.google.com which will
341be forwarded as usual.
342
343Also permitted is a -S
344flag which gives a domain but no IP address; this tells dnsmasq that
345a domain is local and it may answer queries from /etc/hosts or DHCP
346but should never forward queries on that domain to any upstream
347servers.
348.B local
349is a synonym for
350.B server
351to make configuration files clearer in this case.
352
353IPv6 addresses may include a %interface scope-id, eg
354fe80::202:a412:4512:7bbf%eth0.
355
356The optional string after the @ character tells
357dnsmasq how to set the source of the queries to this
358nameserver. It should be an ip-address, which should belong to the machine on which
359dnsmasq is running otherwise this server line will be logged and then
360ignored, or an interface name. If an interface name is given, then
361queries to the server will be forced via that interface; if an
362ip-address is given then the source address of the queries will be set
363to that address.
364The query-port flag is ignored for any servers which have a
365source address specified but the port may be specified directly as
366part of the source address. Forcing queries to an interface is not
367implemented on all platforms supported by dnsmasq.
368.TP
369.B \-A, --address=/<domain>/[domain/]<ipaddr>
370Specify an IP address to return for any host in the given domains.
371Queries in the domains are never forwarded and always replied to
372with the specified IP address which may be IPv4 or IPv6. To give
373both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses for a domain, use repeated -A flags.
374Note that /etc/hosts and DHCP leases override this for individual
375names. A common use of this is to redirect the entire doubleclick.net
376domain to some friendly local web server to avoid banner ads. The
377domain specification works in the same was as for --server, with the
378additional facility that /#/ matches any domain. Thus
379--address=/#/1.2.3.4 will always return 1.2.3.4 for any query not
380answered from /etc/hosts or DHCP and not sent to an upstream
381nameserver by a more specific --server directive.
382.TP
383.B \-m, --mx-host=<mx name>[[,<hostname>],<preference>]
384Return an MX record named <mx name> pointing to the given hostname (if
385given), or
386the host specified in the --mx-target switch
387or, if that switch is not given, the host on which dnsmasq
388is running. The default is useful for directing mail from systems on a LAN
389to a central server. The preference value is optional, and defaults to
3901 if not given. More than one MX record may be given for a host.
391.TP
392.B \-t, --mx-target=<hostname>
393Specify the default target for the MX record returned by dnsmasq. See
394--mx-host. If --mx-target is given, but not --mx-host, then dnsmasq
395returns a MX record containing the MX target for MX queries on the
396hostname of the machine on which dnsmasq is running.
397.TP
398.B \-e, --selfmx
399Return an MX record pointing to itself for each local
400machine. Local machines are those in /etc/hosts or with DHCP leases.
401.TP
402.B \-L, --localmx
403Return an MX record pointing to the host given by mx-target (or the
404machine on which dnsmasq is running) for each
405local machine. Local machines are those in /etc/hosts or with DHCP
406leases.
407.TP
408.B \-W, --srv-host=<_service>.<_prot>.[<domain>],[<target>[,<port>[,<priority>[,<weight>]]]]
409Return a SRV DNS record. See RFC2782 for details. If not supplied, the
410domain defaults to that given by
411.B --domain.
412The default for the target domain is empty, and the default for port
413is one and the defaults for
414weight and priority are zero. Be careful if transposing data from BIND
415zone files: the port, weight and priority numbers are in a different
416order. More than one SRV record for a given service/domain is allowed,
417all that match are returned.
418.TP
419.B --host-record=<name>[,<name>....][<IPv4-address>],[IPv6-address]
420Add A, AAAA and PTR records to the DNS. This adds one or more names to
421the DNS with associated IPv4 (A) and IPv6 (AAAA) records. A name may
422appear in more than one
423.B host-record
424and therefore be assigned more than one address. Only the first
425address creates a PTR record linking the address to the name. This is
426the same rule as is used reading hosts-files.
427.B host-record
428options are considered to be read before host-files, so a name
429appearing there inhibits PTR-record creation if it appears in
430hosts-file also. Unlike host-files, names are not expanded, even when
431.B expand-hosts
432is in effect. Short and long names may appear in the same
433.B host-record, eg. --host-record=laptop,laptop.thekelleys.org,192.168.0.1,1234::100
434.TP
435.B \-Y, --txt-record=<name>[[,<text>],<text>]
436Return a TXT DNS record. The value of TXT record is a set of strings,
437so any number may be included, delimited by commas; use quotes to put
438commas into a string. Note that the maximum length of a single string
439is 255 characters, longer strings are split into 255 character chunks.
440.TP
441.B --ptr-record=<name>[,<target>]
442Return a PTR DNS record.
443.TP
444.B --naptr-record=<name>,<order>,<preference>,<flags>,<service>,<regexp>[,<replacement>]
445Return an NAPTR DNS record, as specified in RFC3403.
446.TP
447.B --cname=<cname>,<target>
448Return a CNAME record which indicates that <cname> is really
449<target>. There are significant limitations on the target; it must be a
450DNS name which is known to dnsmasq from /etc/hosts (or additional
451hosts files) or from DHCP. If the target does not satisfy this
452criteria, the whole cname is ignored. The cname must be unique, but it
453is permissable to have more than one cname pointing to the same target.
454.TP
455.B --interface-name=<name>,<interface>
456Return a DNS record associating the name with the primary address on
457the given interface. This flag specifies an A record for the given
458name in the same way as an /etc/hosts line, except that the address is
459not constant, but taken from the given interface. If the interface is
460down, not configured or non-existent, an empty record is returned. The
461matching PTR record is also created, mapping the interface address to
462the name. More than one name may be associated with an interface
463address by repeating the flag; in that case the first instance is used
464for the reverse address-to-name mapping.
465.TP
466.B --add-mac
467Add the MAC address of the requestor to DNS queries which are
468forwarded upstream. This may be used to DNS filtering by the upstream
469server. The MAC address can only be added if the requestor is on the same
470subnet as the dnsmasq server. Note that the mechanism used to achieve this (an EDNS0 option)
471is not yet standardised, so this should be considered
472experimental. Also note that exposing MAC addresses in this way may
473have security and privacy implications.
474.TP
475.B \-c, --cache-size=<cachesize>
476Set the size of dnsmasq's cache. The default is 150 names. Setting the cache size to zero disables caching.
477.TP
478.B \-N, --no-negcache
479Disable negative caching. Negative caching allows dnsmasq to remember
480"no such domain" answers from upstream nameservers and answer
481identical queries without forwarding them again.
482.TP
483.B \-0, --dns-forward-max=<queries>
484Set the maximum number of concurrent DNS queries. The default value is
485150, which should be fine for most setups. The only known situation
486where this needs to be increased is when using web-server log file
487resolvers, which can generate large numbers of concurrent queries.
488.TP
489.B --proxy-dnssec
490A resolver on a client machine can do DNSSEC validation in two ways: it
491can perform the cryptograhic operations on the reply it receives, or
492it can rely on the upstream recursive nameserver to do the validation
493and set a bit in the reply if it succeeds. Dnsmasq is not a DNSSEC
494validator, so it cannot perform the validation role of the recursive nameserver,
495but it can pass through the validation results from its own upstream
496nameservers. This option enables this behaviour. You should only do
497this if you trust all the configured upstream nameservers
498.I and the network between you and them.
499If you use the first DNSSEC mode, validating resolvers in clients,
500this option is not required. Dnsmasq always returns all the data
501needed for a client to do validation itself.
502.TP
503.B --conntrack
504Read the Linux connection track mark associated with incoming DNS
505queries and set the same mark value on upstream traffic used to answer
506those queries. This allows traffic generated by dnsmasq to be
507associated with the queries which cause it, useful for bandwidth
508accounting and firewalling. Dnsmasq must have conntrack support
509compiled in and the kernel must have conntrack support
510included and configured. This option cannot be combined with
511--query-port.
512.TP
513.B \-F, --dhcp-range=[interface:<interface>,][tag:<tag>[,tag:<tag>],][set:<tag],]<start-addr>[,<end-addr>][,<mode>][,<netmask>[,<broadcast>]][,<lease time>]
514.TP
515.B \-F, --dhcp-range=[interface:<interface>,][tag:<tag>[,tag:<tag>],][set:<tag],]<start-IPv6addr>[,<end-IPv6addr>][,<mode>][,<prefix-len>][,<lease time>]
516
517Enable the DHCP server. Addresses will be given out from the range
518<start-addr> to <end-addr> and from statically defined addresses given
519in
520.B dhcp-host
521options. If the lease time is given, then leases
522will be given for that length of time. The lease time is in seconds,
523or minutes (eg 45m) or hours (eg 1h) or "infinite". If not given,
524the default lease time is one hour. The
525minimum lease time is two minutes. For IPv6 ranges, the lease time
526maybe "deprecated"; this sets the preferred lifetime sent in a DHCP
527lease or router advertisement to zero, which causes clients to use
528other addresses, if available, for new connections as a prelude to renumbering.
529
530This option may be repeated, with different addresses, to enable DHCP
531service to more than one network. For directly connected networks (ie,
532networks on which the machine running dnsmasq has an interface) the
533netmask is optional: dnsmasq will determine it from the interface
534configuration. For networks which receive DHCP service via a relay
535agent, dnsmasq cannot determine the netmask itself, so it should be
536specified, otherwise dnsmasq will have to guess, based on the class (A, B or
537C) of the network address. The broadcast address is
538always optional. It is always
539allowed to have more than one dhcp-range in a single subnet.
540
541For IPv6, the parameters are slightly different: instead of netmask
542and broadcast address, there is an optional prefix length. If not
543given, this defaults to 64. Unlike the IPv4 case, the prefix length is not
544automatically derived from the interface configuration. The mimimum
545size of the prefix length is 64.
546
547The optional
548.B set:<tag>
549sets an alphanumeric label which marks this network so that
550dhcp options may be specified on a per-network basis.
551When it is prefixed with 'tag:' instead, then its meaning changes from setting
552a tag to matching it. Only one tag may be set, but more than one tag
553may be matched.
554
555The optional <mode> keyword may be
556.B static
557which tells dnsmasq to enable DHCP for the network specified, but not
558to dynamically allocate IP addresses: only hosts which have static
559addresses given via
560.B dhcp-host
561or from /etc/ethers will be served.
562
563Fot IPv4, the <mode> may be
564.B proxy
565in which case dnsmasq will provide proxy-DHCP on the specified
566subnet. (See
567.B pxe-prompt
568and
569.B pxe-service
570for details.)
571
572For IPv6, the mode may be some combination of
573.B ra-only, slaac, ra-names, ra-stateless.
574
575.B ra-only
576tells dnsmasq to offer Router Advertisement only on this subnet,
577and not DHCP.
578
579.B slaac
580tells dnsmasq to offer Router Advertisement on this subnet and to set
581the A bit in the router advertisement, so that the client will use
582SLAAC addresses. When used with a DHCP range or static DHCP address
583this results in the client having both a DHCP-assigned and a SLAAC
584address.
585
586.B ra-stateless
587sends router advertisements with the O and A bits set, and provides a
588stateless DHCP service. The client will use a SLAAC address, and use
589DHCP for other configuration information.
590
591.B ra-names
592enables a mode
593which gives DNS names to dual-stack hosts which do SLAAC for
594IPv6. Dnsmasq uses the host's IPv4 lease to derive the name, network
595segment and MAC address and assumes that the host will also have an
596IPv6 address calculated using the SLAAC alogrithm, on the same network
597segment. The address is pinged, and if a reply is received, an AAAA
598record is added to the DNS for this IPv6
599address. Note that this is only happens for directly-connected
600networks, (not one doing DHCP via a relay) and it will not work
601if a host is using privacy extensions.
602.B ra-names
603can be combined with
604.B ra-stateless
605and
606.B slaac.
607
608The interface:<interface name> section is not normally used. See the
609NOTES section for details of this.
610.TP
611.B \-G, --dhcp-host=[<hwaddr>][,id:<client_id>|*][,set:<tag>][,<ipaddr>][,<hostname>][,<lease_time>][,ignore]
612Specify per host parameters for the DHCP server. This allows a machine
613with a particular hardware address to be always allocated the same
614hostname, IP address and lease time. A hostname specified like this
615overrides any supplied by the DHCP client on the machine. It is also
616allowable to omit the hardware address and include the hostname, in
617which case the IP address and lease times will apply to any machine
618claiming that name. For example
619.B --dhcp-host=00:20:e0:3b:13:af,wap,infinite
620tells dnsmasq to give
621the machine with hardware address 00:20:e0:3b:13:af the name wap, and
622an infinite DHCP lease.
623.B --dhcp-host=lap,192.168.0.199
624tells
625dnsmasq to always allocate the machine lap the IP address
626192.168.0.199.
627
628Addresses allocated like this are not constrained to be
629in the range given by the --dhcp-range option, but they must be in
630the same subnet as some valid dhcp-range. For
631subnets which don't need a pool of dynamically allocated addresses,
632use the "static" keyword in the dhcp-range declaration.
633
634It is allowed to use client identifiers rather than
635hardware addresses to identify hosts by prefixing with 'id:'. Thus:
636.B --dhcp-host=id:01:02:03:04,.....
637refers to the host with client identifier 01:02:03:04. It is also
638allowed to specify the client ID as text, like this:
639.B --dhcp-host=id:clientidastext,.....
640
641A single
642.B dhcp-host
643may contain an IPv4 address or an IPv6 address, or both. IPv6 addresses must be bracketed by square brackets thus:
644.B --dhcp-host=laptop,[1234::56]
645Note 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.
646
647The special option id:* means "ignore any client-id
648and use MAC addresses only." This is useful when a client presents a client-id sometimes
649but not others.
650
651If a name appears in /etc/hosts, the associated address can be
652allocated to a DHCP lease, but only if a
653.B --dhcp-host
654option specifying the name also exists. Only one hostname can be
655given in a
656.B dhcp-host
657option, but aliases are possible by using CNAMEs. (See
658.B --cname
659).
660
661The special keyword "ignore"
662tells dnsmasq to never offer a DHCP lease to a machine. The machine
663can be specified by hardware address, client ID or hostname, for
664instance
665.B --dhcp-host=00:20:e0:3b:13:af,ignore
666This is
667useful when there is another DHCP server on the network which should
668be used by some machines.
669
670The set:<tag> contruct sets the tag
671whenever this dhcp-host directive is in use. This can be used to
672selectively send DHCP options just for this host. More than one tag
673can be set in a dhcp-host directive (but not in other places where
674"set:<tag>" is allowed). When a host matches any
675dhcp-host directive (or one implied by /etc/ethers) then the special
676tag "known" is set. This allows dnsmasq to be configured to
677ignore requests from unknown machines using
678.B --dhcp-ignore=tag:!known
679Ethernet addresses (but not client-ids) may have
680wildcard bytes, so for example
681.B --dhcp-host=00:20:e0:3b:13:*,ignore
682will cause dnsmasq to ignore a range of hardware addresses. Note that
683the "*" will need to be escaped or quoted on a command line, but not
684in the configuration file.
685
686Hardware addresses normally match any
687network (ARP) type, but it is possible to restrict them to a single
688ARP type by preceding them with the ARP-type (in HEX) and "-". so
689.B --dhcp-host=06-00:20:e0:3b:13:af,1.2.3.4
690will only match a
691Token-Ring hardware address, since the ARP-address type for token ring
692is 6.
693
694As a special case, in DHCPv4, it is possible to include more than one
695hardware address. eg:
696.B --dhcp-host=11:22:33:44:55:66,12:34:56:78:90:12,192.168.0.2
697This allows an IP address to be associated with
698multiple hardware addresses, and gives dnsmasq permission to abandon a
699DHCP lease to one of the hardware addresses when another one asks for
700a lease. Beware that this is a dangerous thing to do, it will only
701work reliably if only one of the hardware addresses is active at any
702time and there is no way for dnsmasq to enforce this. It is, for instance,
703useful to allocate a stable IP address to a laptop which
704has both wired and wireless interfaces.
705.TP
706.B --dhcp-hostsfile=<path>
707Read DHCP host information from the specified file. If a directory
708is given, then read all the files contained in that directory. The file contains
709information about one host per line. The format of a line is the same
710as text to the right of '=' in --dhcp-host. The advantage of storing DHCP host information
711in this file is that it can be changed without re-starting dnsmasq:
712the file will be re-read when dnsmasq receives SIGHUP.
713.TP
714.B --dhcp-optsfile=<path>
715Read DHCP option information from the specified file. If a directory
716is given, then read all the files contained in that directory. The advantage of
717using this option is the same as for --dhcp-hostsfile: the
718dhcp-optsfile will be re-read when dnsmasq receives SIGHUP. Note that
719it is possible to encode the information in a
720.B --dhcp-boot
721flag as DHCP options, using the options names bootfile-name,
722server-ip-address and tftp-server. This allows these to be included
723in a dhcp-optsfile.
724.TP
725.B \-Z, --read-ethers
726Read /etc/ethers for information about hosts for the DHCP server. The
727format of /etc/ethers is a hardware address, followed by either a
728hostname or dotted-quad IP address. When read by dnsmasq these lines
729have exactly the same effect as
730.B --dhcp-host
731options containing the same information. /etc/ethers is re-read when
732dnsmasq receives SIGHUP. IPv6 addresses are NOT read from /etc/ethers.
733.TP
734.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>]]
735Specify different or extra options to DHCP clients. By default,
736dnsmasq sends some standard options to DHCP clients, the netmask and
737broadcast address are set to the same as the host running dnsmasq, and
738the DNS server and default route are set to the address of the machine
739running dnsmasq. (Equivalent rules apply for IPv6.) If the domain name option has been set, that is sent.
740This configuration allows these defaults to be overridden,
741or other options specified. The option, to be sent may be given as a
742decimal number or as "option:<option-name>" The option numbers are
743specified in RFC2132 and subsequent RFCs. The set of option-names
744known by dnsmasq can be discovered by running "dnsmasq --help dhcp".
745For example, to set the default route option to
746192.168.4.4, do
747.B --dhcp-option=3,192.168.4.4
748or
749.B --dhcp-option = option:router, 192.168.4.4
750and to set the time-server address to 192.168.0.4, do
751.B --dhcp-option = 42,192.168.0.4
752or
753.B --dhcp-option = option:ntp-server, 192.168.0.4
754The special address 0.0.0.0 (or [::] for DHCPv6) is taken to mean "the address of the
755machine running dnsmasq". Data types allowed are comma separated
756dotted-quad IP addresses, a decimal number, colon-separated hex digits
757and a text string. If the optional tags are given then
758this option is only sent when all the tags are matched.
759
760Special processing is done on a text argument for option 119, to
761conform with RFC 3397. Text or dotted-quad IP addresses as arguments
762to option 120 are handled as per RFC 3361. Dotted-quad IP addresses
763which are followed by a slash and then a netmask size are encoded as
764described in RFC 3442.
765
766IPv6 options are specified using the
767.B option6:
768keyword, followed by the option number or option name. The IPv6 option
769name space is disjoint from the IPv4 option name space. IPv6 addresses
770in options must be bracketed with square brackets, eg.
771.B --dhcp-option=option6:ntp-server,[1234::56]
772
773
774Be careful: no checking is done that the correct type of data for the
775option number is sent, it is quite possible to
776persuade dnsmasq to generate illegal DHCP packets with injudicious use
777of this flag. When the value is a decimal number, dnsmasq must determine how
778large the data item is. It does this by examining the option number and/or the
779value, but can be overridden by appending a single letter flag as follows:
780b = one byte, s = two bytes, i = four bytes. This is mainly useful with
781encapsulated vendor class options (see below) where dnsmasq cannot
782determine data size from the option number. Option data which
783consists solely of periods and digits will be interpreted by dnsmasq
784as an IP address, and inserted into an option as such. To force a
785literal string, use quotes. For instance when using option 66 to send
786a literal IP address as TFTP server name, it is necessary to do
787.B --dhcp-option=66,"1.2.3.4"
788
789Encapsulated Vendor-class options may also be specified (IPv4 only) using
790--dhcp-option: for instance
791.B --dhcp-option=vendor:PXEClient,1,0.0.0.0
792sends the encapsulated vendor
793class-specific option "mftp-address=0.0.0.0" to any client whose
794vendor-class matches "PXEClient". The vendor-class matching is
795substring based (see --dhcp-vendorclass for details). If a
796vendor-class option (number 60) is sent by dnsmasq, then that is used
797for selecting encapsulated options in preference to any sent by the
798client. It is
799possible to omit the vendorclass completely;
800.B --dhcp-option=vendor:,1,0.0.0.0
801in which case the encapsulated option is always sent.
802
803Options may be encapsulated (IPv4 only) within other options: for instance
804.B --dhcp-option=encap:175, 190, "iscsi-client0"
805will send option 175, within which is the option 190. If multiple
806options are given which are encapsulated with the same option number
807then they will be correctly combined into one encapsulated option.
808encap: and vendor: are may not both be set in the same dhcp-option.
809
810The final variant on encapsulated options is "Vendor-Identifying
811Vendor Options" as specified by RFC3925. These are denoted like this:
812.B --dhcp-option=vi-encap:2, 10, "text"
813The number in the vi-encap: section is the IANA enterprise number
814used to identify this option. This form of encapsulation is supported
815in IPv6.
816
817The address 0.0.0.0 is not treated specially in
818encapsulated options.
819.TP
820.B --dhcp-option-force=[tag:<tag>,[tag:<tag>,]][encap:<opt>,][vi-encap:<enterprise>,][vendor:[<vendor-class>],]<opt>,[<value>[,<value>]]
821This works in exactly the same way as
822.B --dhcp-option
823except that the option will always be sent, even if the client does
824not ask for it in the parameter request list. This is sometimes
825needed, for example when sending options to PXELinux.
826.TP
827.B --dhcp-no-override
828(IPv4 only) Disable re-use of the DHCP servername and filename fields as extra
829option space. If it can, dnsmasq moves the boot server and filename
830information (from dhcp-boot) out of their dedicated fields into
831DHCP options. This make extra space available in the DHCP packet for
832options but can, rarely, confuse old or broken clients. This flag
833forces "simple and safe" behaviour to avoid problems in such a case.
834.TP
835.B \-U, --dhcp-vendorclass=set:<tag>,[enterprise:<IANA-enterprise number>,]<vendor-class>
836Map from a vendor-class string to a tag. Most DHCP clients provide a
837"vendor class" which represents, in some sense, the type of host. This option
838maps vendor classes to tags, so that DHCP options may be selectively delivered
839to different classes of hosts. For example
840.B dhcp-vendorclass=set:printers,Hewlett-Packard JetDirect
841will allow options to be set only for HP printers like so:
842.B --dhcp-option=tag:printers,3,192.168.4.4
843The vendor-class string is
844substring matched against the vendor-class supplied by the client, to
845allow fuzzy matching. The set: prefix is optional but allowed for
846consistency.
847
848Note that in IPv6 only, vendorclasses are namespaced with an
849IANA-allocated enterprise number. This is given with enterprise:
850keyword and specifies that only vendorclasses matching the specified
851number should be searched.
852.TP
853.B \-j, --dhcp-userclass=set:<tag>,<user-class>
854Map from a user-class string to a tag (with substring
855matching, like vendor classes). Most DHCP clients provide a
856"user class" which is configurable. This option
857maps user classes to tags, so that DHCP options may be selectively delivered
858to different classes of hosts. It is possible, for instance to use
859this to set a different printer server for hosts in the class
860"accounts" than for hosts in the class "engineering".
861.TP
862.B \-4, --dhcp-mac=set:<tag>,<MAC address>
863(IPv4 only) Map from a MAC address to a tag. The MAC address may include
864wildcards. For example
865.B --dhcp-mac=set:3com,01:34:23:*:*:*
866will set the tag "3com" for any host whose MAC address matches the pattern.
867.TP
868.B --dhcp-circuitid=set:<tag>,<circuit-id>, --dhcp-remoteid=set:<tag>,<remote-id>
869Map from RFC3046 relay agent options to tags. This data may
870be provided by DHCP relay agents. The circuit-id or remote-id is
871normally given as colon-separated hex, but is also allowed to be a
872simple string. If an exact match is achieved between the circuit or
873agent ID and one provided by a relay agent, the tag is set.
874
875.B dhcp-remoteid
876(but not dhcp-circuitid) is supported in IPv6.
877.TP
878.B --dhcp-subscrid=set:<tag>,<subscriber-id>
879(IPv4 and IPv6) Map from RFC3993 subscriber-id relay agent options to tags.
880.TP
881.B --dhcp-proxy[=<ip addr>]......
882(IPv4 only) A normal DHCP relay agent is only used to forward the initial parts of
883a DHCP interaction to the DHCP server. Once a client is configured, it
884communicates directly with the server. This is undesirable if the
885relay agent is addding extra information to the DHCP packets, such as
886that used by
887.B dhcp-circuitid
888and
889.B dhcp-remoteid.
890A full relay implementation can use the RFC 5107 serverid-override
891option to force the DHCP server to use the relay as a full proxy, with all
892packets passing through it. This flag provides an alternative method
893of doing the same thing, for relays which don't support RFC
8945107. Given alone, it manipulates the server-id for all interactions
895via relays. If a list of IP addresses is given, only interactions via
896relays at those addresses are affected.
897.TP
898.B --dhcp-match=set:<tag>,<option number>|option:<option name>|vi-encap:<enterprise>[,<value>]
899Without a value, set the tag if the client sends a DHCP
900option of the given number or name. When a value is given, set the tag only if
901the option is sent and matches the value. The value may be of the form
902"01:ff:*:02" in which case the value must match (apart from widcards)
903but the option sent may have unmatched data past the end of the
904value. The value may also be of the same form as in
905.B dhcp-option
906in which case the option sent is treated as an array, and one element
907must match, so
908
909--dhcp-match=set:efi-ia32,option:client-arch,6
910
911will set the tag "efi-ia32" if the the number 6 appears in the list of
912architectures sent by the client in option 93. (See RFC 4578 for
913details.) If the value is a string, substring matching is used.
914
915The special form with vi-encap:<enterpise number> matches against
916vendor-identifying vendor classes for the specified enterprise. Please
917see RFC 3925 for more details of these rare and interesting beasts.
918.TP
919.B --tag-if=set:<tag>[,set:<tag>[,tag:<tag>[,tag:<tag>]]]
920Perform boolean operations on tags. Any tag appearing as set:<tag> is set if
921all the tags which appear as tag:<tag> are set, (or unset when tag:!<tag> is used)
922If no tag:<tag> appears set:<tag> tags are set unconditionally.
923Any number of set: and tag: forms may appear, in any order.
924Tag-if lines ares executed in order, so if the tag in tag:<tag> is a
925tag set by another
926.B tag-if,
927the line which sets the tag must precede the one which tests it.
928.TP
929.B \-J, --dhcp-ignore=tag:<tag>[,tag:<tag>]
930When all the given tags appear in the tag set ignore the host and do
931not allocate it a DHCP lease.
932.TP
933.B --dhcp-ignore-names[=tag:<tag>[,tag:<tag>]]
934When all the given tags appear in the tag set, ignore any hostname
935provided by the host. Note that, unlike dhcp-ignore, it is permissible
936to supply no tags, in which case DHCP-client supplied hostnames
937are always ignored, and DHCP hosts are added to the DNS using only
938dhcp-host configuration in dnsmasq and the contents of /etc/hosts and
939/etc/ethers.
940.TP
941.B --dhcp-generate-names=tag:<tag>[,tag:<tag>]
942(IPv4 only) Generate a name for DHCP clients which do not otherwise have one,
943using the MAC address expressed in hex, seperated by dashes. Note that
944if a host provides a name, it will be used by preference to this,
945unless
946.B --dhcp-ignore-names
947is set.
948.TP
949.B --dhcp-broadcast[=tag:<tag>[,tag:<tag>]]
950(IPv4 only) When all the given tags appear in the tag set, always use broadcast to
951communicate with the host when it is unconfigured. It is permissible
952to supply no tags, in which case this is unconditional. Most DHCP clients which
953need broadcast replies set a flag in their requests so that this
954happens automatically, some old BOOTP clients do not.
955.TP
956.B \-M, --dhcp-boot=[tag:<tag>,]<filename>,[<servername>[,<server address>|<tftp_servername>]]
957(IPv4 only) Set BOOTP options to be returned by the DHCP server. Server name and
958address are optional: if not provided, the name is left empty, and the
959address set to the address of the machine running dnsmasq. If dnsmasq
960is providing a TFTP service (see
961.B --enable-tftp
962) then only the filename is required here to enable network booting.
963If the optional tag(s) are given,
964they must match for this configuration to be sent.
965Instead of an IP address, the TFTP server address can be given as a domain
966name which is looked up in /etc/hosts. This name can be associated in
967/etc/hosts with multiple IP addresses, which are used round-robin.
968This facility can be used to load balance the tftp load among a set of servers.
969.TP
970.B --dhcp-sequential-ip
971Dnsmasq is designed to choose IP addresses for DHCP clients using a
972hash of the client's MAC address. This normally allows a client's
973address to remain stable long-term, even if the client sometimes allows its DHCP
974lease to expire. In this default mode IP addresses are distributed
975pseudo-randomly over the entire available address range. There are
976sometimes circumstances (typically server deployment) where it is more
977convenient to have IP
978addresses allocated sequentially, starting from the lowest available
979address, and setting this flag enables this mode. Note that in the
980sequential mode, clients which allow a lease to expire are much more
981likely to move IP address; for this reason it should not be generally used.
982.TP
983.B --pxe-service=[tag:<tag>,]<CSA>,<menu text>[,<basename>|<bootservicetype>][,<server address>|<server_name>]
984Most uses of PXE boot-ROMS simply allow the PXE
985system to obtain an IP address and then download the file specified by
986.B dhcp-boot
987and execute it. However the PXE system is capable of more complex
988functions when supported by a suitable DHCP server.
989
990This specifies a boot option which may appear in a PXE boot menu. <CSA> is
991client system type, only services of the correct type will appear in a
992menu. The known types are x86PC, PC98, IA64_EFI, Alpha, Arc_x86,
993Intel_Lean_Client, IA32_EFI, BC_EFI, Xscale_EFI and X86-64_EFI; an
994integer may be used for other types. The
995parameter after the menu text may be a file name, in which case dnsmasq acts as a
996boot server and directs the PXE client to download the file by TFTP,
997either from itself (
998.B enable-tftp
999must be set for this to work) or another TFTP server if the final server
1000address/name is given.
1001Note that the "layer"
1002suffix (normally ".0") is supplied by PXE, and should not be added to
1003the basename. If an integer boot service type, rather than a basename
1004is given, then the PXE client will search for a
1005suitable boot service for that type on the network. This search may be done
1006by broadcast, or direct to a server if its IP address/name is provided.
1007If no boot service type or filename is provided (or a boot service type of 0 is specified)
1008then the menu entry will abort the net boot procedure and
1009continue booting from local media. The server address can be given as a domain
1010name which is looked up in /etc/hosts. This name can be associated in
1011/etc/hosts with multiple IP addresses, which are used round-robin.
1012.TP
1013.B --pxe-prompt=[tag:<tag>,]<prompt>[,<timeout>]
1014Setting this provides a prompt to be displayed after PXE boot. If the
1015timeout is given then after the
1016timeout has elapsed with no keyboard input, the first available menu
1017option will be automatically executed. If the timeout is zero then the first available menu
1018item will be executed immediately. If
1019.B pxe-prompt
1020is ommitted the system will wait for user input if there are multiple
1021items in the menu, but boot immediately if
1022there is only one. See
1023.B pxe-service
1024for details of menu items.
1025
1026Dnsmasq supports PXE "proxy-DHCP", in this case another DHCP server on
1027the network is responsible for allocating IP addresses, and dnsmasq
1028simply provides the information given in
1029.B pxe-prompt
1030and
1031.B pxe-service
1032to allow netbooting. This mode is enabled using the
1033.B proxy
1034keyword in
1035.B dhcp-range.
1036.TP
1037.B \-X, --dhcp-lease-max=<number>
1038Limits dnsmasq to the specified maximum number of DHCP leases. The
1039default is 1000. This limit is to prevent DoS attacks from hosts which
1040create thousands of leases and use lots of memory in the dnsmasq
1041process.
1042.TP
1043.B \-K, --dhcp-authoritative
1044(IPv4 only) Should be set when dnsmasq is definitely the only DHCP server on a network.
1045It changes the behaviour from strict RFC compliance so that DHCP requests on
1046unknown leases from unknown hosts are not ignored. This allows new hosts
1047to get a lease without a tedious timeout under all circumstances. It also
1048allows dnsmasq to rebuild its lease database without each client needing to
1049reacquire a lease, if the database is lost.
1050.TP
1051.B --dhcp-alternate-port[=<server port>[,<client port>]]
1052(IPv4 only) Change the ports used for DHCP from the default. If this option is
1053given alone, without arguments, it changes the ports used for DHCP
1054from 67 and 68 to 1067 and 1068. If a single argument is given, that
1055port number is used for the server and the port number plus one used
1056for the client. Finally, two port numbers allows arbitrary
1057specification of both server and client ports for DHCP.
1058.TP
1059.B \-3, --bootp-dynamic[=<network-id>[,<network-id>]]
1060(IPv4 only) Enable dynamic allocation of IP addresses to BOOTP clients. Use this
1061with care, since each address allocated to a BOOTP client is leased
1062forever, and therefore becomes permanently unavailable for re-use by
1063other hosts. if this is given without tags, then it unconditionally
1064enables dynamic allocation. With tags, only when the tags are all
1065set. It may be repeated with different tag sets.
1066.TP
1067.B \-5, --no-ping
1068(IPv4 only) By default, the DHCP server will attempt to ensure that an address in
1069not in use before allocating it to a host. It does this by sending an
1070ICMP echo request (aka "ping") to the address in question. If it gets
1071a reply, then the address must already be in use, and another is
1072tried. This flag disables this check. Use with caution.
1073.TP
1074.B --log-dhcp
1075Extra logging for DHCP: log all the options sent to DHCP clients and
1076the tags used to determine them.
1077.TP
1078.B \-l, --dhcp-leasefile=<path>
1079Use the specified file to store DHCP lease information.
1080.TP
1081.B --dhcp-duid=<enterprise-id>,<uid>
1082(IPv6 only) Specify the server persistent UID which the DHCPv6 server
1083will use. This option is not normally required as dnsmasq creates a
1084DUID automatically when it is first needed. When given, this option
1085provides dnsmasq the data required to create a DUID-EN type DUID. Note
1086that once set, the DUID is stored in the lease database, so to change between DUID-EN and
1087automatically created DUIDs or vice-versa, the lease database must be
1088re-intialised. The enterprise-id is assigned by IANA, and the uid is a
1089string of hex octets unique to a particular device.
1090.TP
1091.B \-6 --dhcp-script=<path>
1092Whenever a new DHCP lease is created, or an old one destroyed, or a
1093TFTP file transfer completes, the
1094executable specified by this option is run. <path>
1095must be an absolute pathname, no PATH search occurs.
1096The arguments to the process
1097are "add", "old" or "del", the MAC
1098address of the host (or DUID for IPv6) , the IP address, and the hostname,
1099if known. "add" means a lease has been created, "del" means it has
1100been destroyed, "old" is a notification of an existing lease when
1101dnsmasq starts or a change to MAC address or hostname of an existing
1102lease (also, lease length or expiry and client-id, if leasefile-ro is set).
1103If the MAC address is from a network type other than ethernet,
1104it will have the network type prepended, eg "06-01:23:45:67:89:ab" for
1105token ring. The process is run as root (assuming that dnsmasq was originally run as
1106root) even if dnsmasq is configured to change UID to an unprivileged user.
1107
1108The environment is inherited from the invoker of dnsmasq, with some or
1109all of the following variables added
1110
1111For both IPv4 and IPv6:
1112
1113DNSMASQ_DOMAIN if the fully-qualified domain name of the host is
1114known, this is set to the domain part. (Note that the hostname passed
1115to the script as an argument is never fully-qualified.)
1116
1117If the client provides a hostname, DNSMASQ_SUPPLIED_HOSTNAME
1118
1119If the client provides user-classes, DNSMASQ_USER_CLASS0..DNSMASQ_USER_CLASSn
1120
1121If dnsmasq was compiled with HAVE_BROKEN_RTC, then
1122the length of the lease (in seconds) is stored in
1123DNSMASQ_LEASE_LENGTH, otherwise the time of lease expiry is stored in
1124DNSMASQ_LEASE_EXPIRES. The number of seconds until lease expiry is
1125always stored in DNSMASQ_TIME_REMAINING.
1126
1127If a lease used to have a hostname, which is
1128removed, an "old" event is generated with the new state of the lease,
1129ie no name, and the former name is provided in the environment
1130variable DNSMASQ_OLD_HOSTNAME.
1131
1132DNSMASQ_INTERFACE stores the name of
1133the interface on which the request arrived; this is not set for "old"
1134actions when dnsmasq restarts.
1135
1136DNSMASQ_RELAY_ADDRESS is set if the client
1137used a DHCP relay to contact dnsmasq and the IP address of the relay
1138is known.
1139
1140DNSMASQ_TAGS contains all the tags set during the
1141DHCP transaction, separated by spaces.
1142
1143DNSMASQ_LOG_DHCP is set if --log-dhcp is in effect.
1144
1145For IPv4 only:
1146
1147DNSMASQ_CLIENT_ID if the host provided a client-id.
1148
1149If the client provides vendor-class, DNSMASQ_VENDOR_CLASS.
1150
1151For IPv6 only:
1152
1153If the client provides vendor-class, DNSMASQ_VENDOR_CLASS_ID,
1154containing the IANA enterprise id for the class, and
1155DNSMASQ_VENDOR_CLASS0..DNSMASQ_VENDOR_CLASSn for the data.
1156
1157DNSMASQ_SERVER_DUID containing the DUID of the server: this is the same for
1158every call to the script.
1159
1160DNSMASQ_IAID containing the IAID for the lease. If the lease is a
1161temporary allocation, this is prefixed to 'T'.
1162
1163
1164
1165Note that the supplied hostname, vendorclass and userclass data is
1166only supplied for
1167"add" actions or "old" actions when a host resumes an existing lease,
1168since these data are not held in dnsmasq's lease
1169database.
1170
1171
1172
1173All file descriptors are
1174closed except stdin, stdout and stderr which are open to /dev/null
1175(except in debug mode).
1176
1177The script is not invoked concurrently: at most one instance
1178of the script is ever running (dnsmasq waits for an instance of script to exit
1179before running the next). Changes to the lease database are which
1180require the script to be invoked are queued awaiting exit of a running instance.
1181If this queueing allows multiple state changes occur to a single
1182lease before the script can be run then
1183earlier states are discarded and the current state of that lease is
1184reflected when the script finally runs.
1185
1186At dnsmasq startup, the script will be invoked for
1187all existing leases as they are read from the lease file. Expired
1188leases will be called with "del" and others with "old". When dnsmasq
1189receives a HUP signal, the script will be invoked for existing leases
1190with an "old " event.
1191
1192
1193There are two further actions which may appear as the first argument
1194to the script, "init" and "tftp". More may be added in the future, so
1195scripts should be written to ignore unknown actions. "init" is
1196decsribed below in
1197.B --leasefile-ro
1198The "tftp" action is invoked when a TFTP file transfer completes: the
1199arguments are the file size in bytes, the address to which the file
1200was sent, and the complete pathname of the file.
1201
1202.TP
1203.B --dhcp-luascript=<path>
1204Specify a script written in Lua, to be run when leases are created,
1205destroyed or changed. To use this option, dnsmasq must be compiled
1206with the correct support. The Lua interpreter is intialised once, when
1207dnsmasq starts, so that global variables persist between lease
1208events. The Lua code must define a
1209.B lease
1210function, and may provide
1211.B init
1212and
1213.B shutdown
1214functions, which are called, without arguments when dnsmasq starts up
1215and terminates. It may also provide a
1216.B tftp
1217function.
1218
1219The
1220.B lease
1221function receives the information detailed in
1222.B --dhcp-script.
1223It gets two arguments, firstly the action, which is a string
1224containing, "add", "old" or "del", and secondly a table of tag value
1225pairs. The tags mostly correspond to the environment variables
1226detailed above, for instance the tag "domain" holds the same data as
1227the environment variable DNSMASQ_DOMAIN. There are a few extra tags
1228which hold the data supplied as arguments to
1229.B --dhcp-script.
1230These are
1231.B mac_address, ip_address
1232and
1233.B hostname
1234for IPv4, and
1235.B client_duid, ip_address
1236and
1237.B hostname
1238for IPv6.
1239
1240The
1241.B tftp
1242function is called in the same way as the lease function, and the
1243table holds the tags
1244.B destination_address,
1245.B file_name
1246and
1247.B file_size.
1248.TP
1249.B --dhcp-scriptuser
1250Specify 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.
1251.TP
1252.B \-9, --leasefile-ro
1253Completely suppress use of the lease database file. The file will not
1254be created, read, or written. Change the way the lease-change
1255script (if one is provided) is called, so that the lease database may
1256be maintained in external storage by the script. In addition to the
1257invocations given in
1258.B --dhcp-script
1259the lease-change script is called once, at dnsmasq startup, with the
1260single argument "init". When called like this the script should write
1261the saved state of the lease database, in dnsmasq leasefile format, to
1262stdout and exit with zero exit code. Setting this
1263option also forces the leasechange script to be called on changes
1264to the client-id and lease length and expiry time.
1265.TP
1266.B --bridge-interface=<interface>,<alias>[,<alias>]
1267Treat DHCP request packets arriving at any of the <alias> interfaces
1268as if they had arrived at <interface>. This option is necessary when
1269using "old style" bridging on BSD platforms, since
1270packets arrive at tap interfaces which don't have an IP address.
1271.TP
1272.B \-s, --domain=<domain>[,<address range>[,local]]
1273Specifies DNS domains for the DHCP server. Domains may be be given
1274unconditionally (without the IP range) or for limited IP ranges. This has two effects;
1275firstly it causes the DHCP server to return the domain to any hosts
1276which request it, and secondly it sets the domain which it is legal
1277for DHCP-configured hosts to claim. The intention is to constrain
1278hostnames so that an untrusted host on the LAN cannot advertise
1279its name via dhcp as e.g. "microsoft.com" and capture traffic not
1280meant for it. If no domain suffix is specified, then any DHCP
1281hostname with a domain part (ie with a period) will be disallowed
1282and logged. If suffix is specified, then hostnames with a domain
1283part are allowed, provided the domain part matches the suffix. In
1284addition, when a suffix is set then hostnames without a domain
1285part have the suffix added as an optional domain part. Eg on my network I can set
1286.B --domain=thekelleys.org.uk
1287and have a machine whose DHCP hostname is "laptop". The IP address for that machine is available from
1288.B dnsmasq
1289both as "laptop" and "laptop.thekelleys.org.uk". If the domain is
1290given as "#" then the domain is read from the first "search" directive
1291in /etc/resolv.conf (or equivalent).
1292
1293The address range can be of the form
1294<ip address>,<ip address> or <ip address>/<netmask> or just a single
1295<ip address>. See
1296.B --dhcp-fqdn
1297which can change the behaviour of dnsmasq with domains.
1298
1299If the address range is given as ip-address/network-size, then a
1300additional flag "local" may be supplied which has the effect of adding
1301--local declarations for forward and reverse DNS queries. Eg.
1302.B --domain=thekelleys.org.uk,192.168.0.0/24,local
1303is identical to
1304.B --domain=thekelleys.org.uk,192.168.0.0/24
1305--local=/thekelleys.org.uk/ --local=/0.168.192.in-addr.arpa/
1306The network size must be 8, 16 or 24 for this to be legal.
1307.TP
1308.B --dhcp-fqdn
1309In the default mode, dnsmasq inserts the unqualified names of
1310DHCP clients into the DNS. For this reason, the names must be unique,
1311even if two clients which have the same name are in different
1312domains. If a second DHCP client appears which has the same name as an
1313existing client, the name is transfered to the new client. If
1314.B --dhcp-fqdn
1315is set, this behaviour changes: the unqualified name is no longer
1316put in the DNS, only the qualified name. Two DHCP clients with the
1317same name may both keep the name, provided that the domain part is
1318different (ie the fully qualified names differ.) To ensure that all
1319names have a domain part, there must be at least
1320.B --domain
1321without an address specified when
1322.B --dhcp-fqdn
1323is set.
1324.TP
1325.B --dhcp-client-update
1326Normally, when giving a DHCP lease, dnsmasq sets flags in the FQDN
1327option to tell the client not to attempt a DDNS update with its name
1328and IP address. This is because the name-IP pair is automatically
1329added into dnsmasq's DNS view. This flag suppresses that behaviour,
1330this is useful, for instance, to allow Windows clients to update
1331Active Directory servers. See RFC 4702 for details.
1332.TP
1333.B --enable-ra
1334Enable dnsmasq's IPv6 Router Advertisement feature. DHCPv6 doesn't
1335handle complete network configuration in the same way as DHCPv4. Router
1336discovery and (possibly) prefix discovery for autonomous address
1337creation are handled by a different protocol. When DHCP is in use,
1338only a subset of this is needed, and dnsmasq can handle it, using
1339existing DHCP configuration to provide most data. When RA is enabled,
1340dnsmasq will advertise a prefix for each dhcp-range, with default
1341router and recursive DNS server as the relevant link-local address on
1342the machine running dnsmasq. By default, he "managed address" bits are set, and
1343the "use SLAAC" bit is reset. This can be changed for individual
1344subnets with the mode keywords described in
1345.B --dhcp-range.
1346.TP
1347.B --enable-tftp[=<interface>]
1348Enable the TFTP server function. This is deliberately limited to that
1349needed to net-boot a client. Only reading is allowed; the tsize and
1350blksize extensions are supported (tsize is only supported in octet
1351mode). See NOTES section for use of the interface argument.
1352
1353.TP
1354.B --tftp-root=<directory>[,<interface>]
1355Look for files to transfer using TFTP relative to the given
1356directory. When this is set, TFTP paths which include ".." are
1357rejected, to stop clients getting outside the specified root.
1358Absolute paths (starting with /) are allowed, but they must be within
1359the tftp-root. If the optional interface argument is given, the
1360directory is only used for TFTP requests via that interface.
1361.TP
1362.B --tftp-unique-root
1363Add the IP address of the TFTP client as a path component on the end
1364of the TFTP-root (in standard dotted-quad format). Only valid if a
1365tftp-root is set and the directory exists. For instance, if tftp-root is "/tftp" and client
13661.2.3.4 requests file "myfile" then the effective path will be
1367"/tftp/1.2.3.4/myfile" if /tftp/1.2.3.4 exists or /tftp/myfile otherwise.
1368.TP
1369.B --tftp-secure
1370Enable TFTP secure mode: without this, any file which is readable by
1371the dnsmasq process under normal unix access-control rules is
1372available via TFTP. When the --tftp-secure flag is given, only files
1373owned by the user running the dnsmasq process are accessible. If
1374dnsmasq is being run as root, different rules apply: --tftp-secure
1375has no effect, but only files which have the world-readable bit set
1376are accessible. It is not recommended to run dnsmasq as root with TFTP
1377enabled, and certainly not without specifying --tftp-root. Doing so
1378can expose any world-readable file on the server to any host on the net.
1379.TP
1380.B --tftp-max=<connections>
1381Set the maximum number of concurrent TFTP connections allowed. This
1382defaults to 50. When serving a large number of TFTP connections,
1383per-process file descriptor limits may be encountered. Dnsmasq needs
1384one file descriptor for each concurrent TFTP connection and one
1385file descriptor per unique file (plus a few others). So serving the
1386same file simultaneously to n clients will use require about n + 10 file
1387descriptors, serving different files simultaneously to n clients will
1388require about (2*n) + 10 descriptors. If
1389.B --tftp-port-range
1390is given, that can affect the number of concurrent connections.
1391.TP
1392.B --tftp-no-blocksize
1393Stop the TFTP server from negotiating the "blocksize" option with a
1394client. Some buggy clients request this option but then behave badly
1395when it is granted.
1396.TP
1397.B --tftp-port-range=<start>,<end>
1398A TFTP server listens on a well-known port (69) for connection initiation,
1399but it also uses a dynamically-allocated port for each
1400connection. Normally these are allocated by the OS, but this option
1401specifies a range of ports for use by TFTP transfers. This can be
1402useful when TFTP has to traverse a firewall. The start of the range
1403cannot be lower than 1025 unless dnsmasq is running as root. The number
1404of concurrent TFTP connections is limited by the size of the port range.
1405.TP
1406.B \-C, --conf-file=<file>
1407Specify a different configuration file. The conf-file option is also allowed in
1408configuration files, to include multiple configuration files. A
1409filename of "-" causes dnsmasq to read configuration from stdin.
1410.TP
1411.B \-7, --conf-dir=<directory>[,<file-extension>......]
1412Read all the files in the given directory as configuration
1413files. If extension(s) are given, any files which end in those
1414extensions are skipped. Any files whose names end in ~ or start with . or start and end
1415with # are always skipped. This flag may be given on the command
1416line or in a configuration file.
1417.SH CONFIG FILE
1418At startup, dnsmasq reads
1419.I /etc/dnsmasq.conf,
1420if it exists. (On
1421FreeBSD, the file is
1422.I /usr/local/etc/dnsmasq.conf
1423) (but see the
1424.B \-C
1425and
1426.B \-7
1427options.) The format of this
1428file consists of one option per line, exactly as the long options detailed
1429in the OPTIONS section but without the leading "--". Lines starting with # are comments and ignored. For
1430options which may only be specified once, the configuration file overrides
1431the command line. Quoting is allowed in a config file:
1432between " quotes the special meanings of ,:. and # are removed and the
1433following escapes are allowed: \\\\ \\" \\t \\e \\b \\r and \\n. The later
1434corresponding to tab, escape, backspace, return and newline.
1435.SH NOTES
1436When it receives a SIGHUP,
1437.B dnsmasq
1438clears its cache and then re-loads
1439.I /etc/hosts
1440and
1441.I /etc/ethers
1442and any file given by --dhcp-hostsfile, --dhcp-optsfile or --addn-hosts.
1443The dhcp lease change script is called for all
1444existing DHCP leases. If
1445.B
1446--no-poll
1447is set SIGHUP also re-reads
1448.I /etc/resolv.conf.
1449SIGHUP
1450does NOT re-read the configuration file.
1451.PP
1452When it receives a SIGUSR1,
1453.B dnsmasq
1454writes statistics to the system log. It writes the cache size,
1455the number of names which have had to removed from the cache before
1456they expired in order to make room for new names and the total number
1457of names that have been inserted into the cache. For each upstream
1458server it gives the number of queries sent, and the number which
1459resulted in an error. In
1460.B --no-daemon
1461mode or when full logging is enabled (-q), a complete dump of the
1462contents of the cache is made.
1463.PP
1464When it receives SIGUSR2 and it is logging direct to a file (see
1465.B --log-facility
1466)
1467.B dnsmasq
1468will close and reopen the log file. Note that during this operation,
1469dnsmasq will not be running as root. When it first creates the logfile
1470dnsmasq changes the ownership of the file to the non-root user it will run
1471as. Logrotate should be configured to create a new log file with
1472the ownership which matches the existing one before sending SIGUSR2.
1473If TCP DNS queries are in progress, the old logfile will remain open in
1474child processes which are handling TCP queries and may continue to be
1475written. There is a limit of 150 seconds, after which all existing TCP
1476processes will have expired: for this reason, it is not wise to
1477configure logfile compression for logfiles which have just been
1478rotated. Using logrotate, the required options are
1479.B create
1480and
1481.B delaycompress.
1482
1483
1484.PP
1485Dnsmasq is a DNS query forwarder: it it not capable of recursively
1486answering arbitrary queries starting from the root servers but
1487forwards such queries to a fully recursive upstream DNS server which is
1488typically provided by an ISP. By default, dnsmasq reads
1489.I /etc/resolv.conf
1490to discover the IP
1491addresses of the upstream nameservers it should use, since the
1492information is typically stored there. Unless
1493.B --no-poll
1494is used,
1495.B dnsmasq
1496checks the modification time of
1497.I /etc/resolv.conf
1498(or equivalent if
1499.B \--resolv-file
1500is used) and re-reads it if it changes. This allows the DNS servers to
1501be set dynamically by PPP or DHCP since both protocols provide the
1502information.
1503Absence of
1504.I /etc/resolv.conf
1505is not an error
1506since it may not have been created before a PPP connection exists. Dnsmasq
1507simply keeps checking in case
1508.I /etc/resolv.conf
1509is created at any
1510time. Dnsmasq can be told to parse more than one resolv.conf
1511file. This is useful on a laptop, where both PPP and DHCP may be used:
1512dnsmasq can be set to poll both
1513.I /etc/ppp/resolv.conf
1514and
1515.I /etc/dhcpc/resolv.conf
1516and will use the contents of whichever changed
1517last, giving automatic switching between DNS servers.
1518.PP
1519Upstream servers may also be specified on the command line or in
1520the configuration file. These server specifications optionally take a
1521domain name which tells dnsmasq to use that server only to find names
1522in that particular domain.
1523.PP
1524In order to configure dnsmasq to act as cache for the host on which it is running, put "nameserver 127.0.0.1" in
1525.I /etc/resolv.conf
1526to force local processes to send queries to
1527dnsmasq. Then either specify the upstream servers directly to dnsmasq
1528using
1529.B \--server
1530options or put their addresses real in another file, say
1531.I /etc/resolv.dnsmasq
1532and run dnsmasq with the
1533.B \-r /etc/resolv.dnsmasq
1534option. This second technique allows for dynamic update of the server
1535addresses by PPP or DHCP.
1536.PP
1537Addresses in /etc/hosts will "shadow" different addresses for the same
1538names in the upstream DNS, so "mycompany.com 1.2.3.4" in /etc/hosts will ensure that
1539queries for "mycompany.com" always return 1.2.3.4 even if queries in
1540the upstream DNS would otherwise return a different address. There is
1541one exception to this: if the upstream DNS contains a CNAME which
1542points to a shadowed name, then looking up the CNAME through dnsmasq
1543will result in the unshadowed address associated with the target of
1544the CNAME. To work around this, add the CNAME to /etc/hosts so that
1545the CNAME is shadowed too.
1546
1547.PP
1548The tag system works as follows: For each DHCP request, dnsmasq
1549collects a set of valid tags from active configuration lines which
1550include set:<tag>, including one from the
1551.B dhcp-range
1552used to allocate the address, one from any matching
1553.B dhcp-host
1554(and "known" if a dhcp-host matches)
1555The tag "bootp" is set for BOOTP requests, and a tag whose name is the
1556name of the interface on which the request arrived is also set.
1557
1558Any configuration lines which includes one or more tag:<tag> contructs
1559will only be valid if all that tags are matched in the set derived
1560above. Typically this is dhcp-option.
1561.B dhcp-option
1562which has tags will be used in preference to an untagged
1563.B dhcp-option,
1564provided that _all_ the tags match somewhere in the
1565set collected as described above. The prefix '!' on a tag means 'not'
1566so --dhcp=option=tag:!purple,3,1.2.3.4 sends the option when the
1567tag purple is not in the set of valid tags. (If using this in a
1568command line rather than a configuration file, be sure to escape !,
1569which is a shell metacharacter)
1570
1571When selecting dhcp-options, a tag from dhcp-range is second class
1572relative to other tags, to make it easy to override options for
1573individual hosts, so
1574.B dhcp-range=set:interface1,......
1575.B dhcp-host=set:myhost,.....
1576.B dhcp-option=tag:interface1,option:nis-domain,"domain1"
1577.B dhcp-option=tag:myhost,option:nis-domain,"domain2"
1578will set the NIS-domain to domain1 for hosts in the range, but
1579override that to domain2 for a particular host.
1580
1581.PP
1582Note that for
1583.B dhcp-range
1584both tag:<tag> and set:<tag> are allowed, to both select the range in
1585use based on (eg) dhcp-host, and to affect the options sent, based on
1586the range selected.
1587
1588This system evolved from an earlier, more limited one and for backward
1589compatibility "net:" may be used instead of "tag:" and "set:" may be
1590omitted. (Except in
1591.B dhcp-host,
1592where "net:" may be used instead of "set:".) For the same reason, '#'
1593may be used instead of '!' to indicate NOT.
1594.PP
1595The DHCP server in dnsmasq will function as a BOOTP server also,
1596provided that the MAC address and IP address for clients are given,
1597either using
1598.B dhcp-host
1599configurations or in
1600.I /etc/ethers
1601, and a
1602.B dhcp-range
1603configuration option is present to activate the DHCP server
1604on a particular network. (Setting --bootp-dynamic removes the need for
1605static address mappings.) The filename
1606parameter in a BOOTP request is used as a tag,
1607as is the tag "bootp", allowing some control over the options returned to
1608different classes of hosts.
1609
1610.B dhcp-range
1611may have an interface name supplied as
1612"interface:<interface-name>". The semantics if this are as follows:
1613For DHCP, if any other dhcp-range exists _without_ an interface name,
1614then the interface name is ignored and and dnsmasq behaves as if the
1615interface parts did not exist, otherwise DHCP is only provided to
1616interfaces mentioned in dhcp-range
1617declarations. For DNS, if there are no
1618.B --interface
1619or
1620.B --listen-address
1621flags, behaviour is unchanged by the interface part. If either of
1622these flags are present, the interfaces mentioned in
1623dhcp-ranges are added to the set which get DNS service.
1624
1625Similarly,
1626.B enable-tftp
1627may take an interface name, which enables TFTP only for a particular
1628interface, ignoring
1629.B --interface
1630or
1631.B --listen-address
1632flags. In addition
1633.B --tftp-secure
1634and
1635.B --tftp-unique-root
1636and
1637.B --tftp-no-blocksize
1638are ignored for requests from such interfaces. (A
1639.B --tftp-root
1640directive giving a root path and an interface should be
1641provided too.)
1642
1643These rules may seem odd at first sight, but they
1644allow a single line of the form "dhcp-range=interface:virt0,192.168.0.4,192.168.0.200"
1645to be added to dnsmasq configuration which then supplies
1646DHCP and DNS services to that interface, without affecting
1647what services are supplied to other interfaces and irrespective of
1648the existance or lack of "interface=<interface>"
1649lines elsewhere in the dnsmasq configuration.
1650"enable-tftp=virt0" and "tftp-root=<root>,virt0" do the same job for TFTP.
1651 The idea is
1652that such a line can be added automatically by libvirt
1653or equivalent systems, without disturbing any manual
1654configuration.
1655
1656.SH EXIT CODES
1657.PP
16580 - Dnsmasq successfully forked into the background, or terminated
1659normally if backgrounding is not enabled.
1660.PP
16611 - A problem with configuration was detected.
1662.PP
16632 - A problem with network access occurred (address in use, attempt
1664to use privileged ports without permission).
1665.PP
16663 - A problem occurred with a filesystem operation (missing
1667file/directory, permissions).
1668.PP
16694 - Memory allocation failure.
1670.PP
16715 - Other miscellaneous problem.
1672.PP
167311 or greater - a non zero return code was received from the
1674lease-script process "init" call. The exit code from dnsmasq is the
1675script's exit code with 10 added.
1676
1677.SH LIMITS
1678The default values for resource limits in dnsmasq are generally
1679conservative, and appropriate for embedded router type devices with
1680slow processors and limited memory. On more capable hardware, it is
1681possible to increase the limits, and handle many more clients. The
1682following applies to dnsmasq-2.37: earlier versions did not scale as well.
1683
1684.PP
1685Dnsmasq is capable of handling DNS and DHCP for at least a thousand
1686clients. The DHCP lease times should not be very short (less than one hour). The
1687value of
1688.B --dns-forward-max
1689can be increased: start with it equal to
1690the number of clients and increase if DNS seems slow. Note that DNS
1691performance depends too on the performance of the upstream
1692nameservers. The size of the DNS cache may be increased: the hard
1693limit is 10000 names and the default (150) is very low. Sending
1694SIGUSR1 to dnsmasq makes it log information which is useful for tuning
1695the cache size. See the
1696.B NOTES
1697section for details.
1698
1699.PP
1700The built-in TFTP server is capable of many simultaneous file
1701transfers: the absolute limit is related to the number of file-handles
1702allowed to a process and the ability of the select() system call to
1703cope with large numbers of file handles. If the limit is set too high
1704using
1705.B --tftp-max
1706it will be scaled down and the actual limit logged at
1707start-up. Note that more transfers are possible when the same file is
1708being sent than when each transfer sends a different file.
1709
1710.PP
1711It is possible to use dnsmasq to block Web advertising by using a list
1712of known banner-ad servers, all resolving to 127.0.0.1 or 0.0.0.0, in
1713.B /etc/hosts
1714or an additional hosts file. The list can be very long,
1715dnsmasq has been tested successfully with one million names. That size
1716file needs a 1GHz processor and about 60Mb of RAM.
1717
1718.SH INTERNATIONALISATION
1719Dnsmasq can be compiled to support internationalisation. To do this,
1720the make targets "all-i18n" and "install-i18n" should be used instead of
1721the standard targets "all" and "install". When internationalisation
1722is compiled in, dnsmasq will produce log messages in the local
1723language and support internationalised domain names (IDN). Domain
1724names in /etc/hosts, /etc/ethers and /etc/dnsmasq.conf which contain
1725non-ASCII characters will be translated to the DNS-internal punycode
1726representation. Note that
1727dnsmasq determines both the language for messages and the assumed
1728charset for configuration
1729files from the LANG environment variable. This should be set to the system
1730default value by the script which is responsible for starting
1731dnsmasq. When editing the configuration files, be careful to do so
1732using only the system-default locale and not user-specific one, since
1733dnsmasq has no direct way of determining the charset in use, and must
1734assume that it is the system default.
1735
1736.SH FILES
1737.IR /etc/dnsmasq.conf
1738
1739.IR /usr/local/etc/dnsmasq.conf
1740
1741.IR /etc/resolv.conf
1742.IR /var/run/dnsmasq/resolv.conf
1743.IR /etc/ppp/resolv.conf
1744.IR /etc/dhcpc/resolv.conf
1745
1746.IR /etc/hosts
1747
1748.IR /etc/ethers
1749
1750.IR /var/lib/misc/dnsmasq.leases
1751
1752.IR /var/db/dnsmasq.leases
1753
1754.IR /var/run/dnsmasq.pid
1755.SH SEE ALSO
1756.BR hosts (5),
1757.BR resolver (5)
1758.SH AUTHOR
1759This manual page was written by Simon Kelley <simon@thekelleys.org.uk>.
1760
1761