There are two ways to run these tests. The automated way is ./runtests which tries to pick up a dnsdist binary built from a distributed tarball in ../pdns/dnsdistdist/dnsdist-*/dnsdist If this is not the binary you want to test, use something like: DNSDISTBIN=../pdns/dnsdistdist/dnsdist ./runtests The tests are self-contained and require no further nameservers to be installed. However, do make sure to build a dnsdist with libsodium, dnscrypt, DoT and DoH support as otherwise some tests will fail. To run a specific test, use something like: ./runtests test_Advanced.py:TestAdvancedSpoof.testSpoofActionMultiA