.\" Do *not* edit this file; it was automatically generated by ej2man
.\" Look for a name.ej file with the same name as this filename
.\"
.\" Process this file with the following
.\" nroff -man -Tutf8 maradns.8 | tr '\020' ' '
.\"
.\" Last updated Fri Sep 21 07:07:09 2007
.\"
.TH MARADNS 8 "January 2002" MARADNS "MaraDNS reference"
.\" We don't want hyphenation (it's too ugly)
.\" We also disable justification when using nroff
.\" Due to the way the -mandoc macro works, this needs to be placed
.\" after the .TH heading
.hy 0
.if n .na
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.\" In both groff and other UNIX *roff processors
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.ds aq \(aq
.if !\n(.g .if '\(aq'' .ds aq \'


.nf
Erre con erre cigarro
Erre con erre barril
R\('apido ruedan los carros
En el ferrocarril
.fi

.SH "NAME"
.PP
maradns - DNS server
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.PP
.B "maradns [ -v | -f mararc_file_location ]"
.SH "TABLE OF CONTENTS"
.PP
This man page has the following sections:
.PP
.RS 4

.nf
Name 
Synopsis
Table of Contents
Description
Usage
Firewall Configuration
Frequently Asked Questions
Bugs
Unimplemented Features
Legal Disclaimer
Authors
.fi

.RE
.PP
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.PP
.B "maradns"
is a DNS server written with security, simplicity, and performance in
mind.
.PP
.B "maradns"
has two forms of arguments, both of which are optional.
.PP
The first is the location of a
.B "mararc"
file which MaraDNS obtains all configuration information from.
The default location of this file is
.BR "/etc/mararc" "."
This is specified in the form
.BR "maradns -f mararc_file_location" ";"
.I "mararc_file_location"
is the location of the mararc file.
.PP
It is also possible to have MaraDNS display the version number and
exit. This is specified by invoking maradns in the form
.B "maradns -v"
or
.B "maradns --version"
.SH "USAGE"
.PP
If MaraDNS is functioning only as a recursive nameserver, just one file
needs to be set up: The mararc file.
.PP
In order for MaraDNS to function as an authoritative nameserver, two
or more files need to be set up: the mararc file and one or more "csv1"
zone
files.
.PP
The configuration formation of a csv1 zone file can be obtained
from the
.B "csv1(5)"
manual page. The configuration format of the mararc file can be
obtained
from the
.B "mararc(5)"
manual page.
.PP
In order to have MaraDNS run as a daemon, the duende program is used to
daemonize MaraDNS. See the
.B "duende(8)"
manual page for details.
.SH "FIREWALL CONFIGURATION"
.PP
If MaraDNS is being used as an authoritative nameserver, allow UDP
connections from all hosts on the internet to UDP port 53 for the IP
that the authoritative nameserver uses.
.PP
If MaraDNS is being used as a recursive nameserver, the firewall needs
to allow the following packets to go to and from the IP the recursive
nameserver uses:
.TP 2
*
Allow UDP connections from the MaraDNS-running server to any
machine on the internet where the UDP destination port is 53
.TP 2
*
Allow UDP connections from any machine on the internet to the IP of the
recursive server, where the source port from the remote server is 53,
and the
destination port is between 15000 and 19095 (inclusive)
.TP 2
*
Allow UDP connections from IPs that use MaraDNS as a recursive DNS
server
to port 53 of the MaraDNS server
.PP
MaraDNS uses a strong secure RNG for both the query (16 bits of
entropy)
and the source port of the query (12 bits of entropy). This makes
spoofing
replies to a MaraDNS server more difficult, since the attacker has only
a
one in 250 million chance that a given spoofed reply will be considered
valid.
.PP
.SH "FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS"
.PP
.PP
.in -3
\fBINDEX\fR
.PP
.PP
.RS 4
1. I\(aqm still using version 1.0 of MaraDNS
.PP
2. How do I try out MaraDNS?
.PP
3. What license is MaraDNS released under?
.PP
4. How do I report bugs in MaraDNS?
.PP
5. Some of the postings to the mailing list do not talk
about MaraDNS!
.PP
6. How do I get off the mailing list?
.PP
7. How do I set up reverse DNS on MaraDNS?
.PP
8. I am on a slow network, and MaraDNS can not process
recursive queries
.PP
9. When I try to run MaraDNS, I get a
cryptic error message.
.PP
10. After I start MaraDNS, I can not see the process
when I run netstat -na
.PP
11. What string library does MaraDNS use?
.PP
12. Why does MaraDNS use a multi-threaded model?
.PP
13. I feel that XXX feature should be added to MaraDNS
.PP
14. I feel that MaraDNS should use another documentation
format
.PP
15. Is there any process I need to follow to add a patch
to MaraDNS?
.PP
16. Can MaraDNS act as a primary nameserver?
.PP
17. Can MaraDNS act as a secondary nameserver?
.PP
18. What is the difference between an authoritative and
a recursive DNS server?
.PP
19. The getzone client isn\(aqt allowing me to add certain
hostnames to my zone
.PP
20. Is MaraDNS portable?
.PP
21. Can I use MaraDNS in Windows?
.PP
22. MaraDNS freezes up after being used for a while
.PP
23. What kind of Python integration does MaraDNS have
.PP
24. Doesn\(aqt "kvar" mean "four" in Esperanto?
.PP
25. How scalable is MaraDNS?
.PP
26. I am having problems setting
upstream_servers
.PP
27. Why doesn\(aqt the MaraDNS.org web page validate?
.PP
28. How do MX records work?
.PP
29. Does MaraDNS have support for SPF?
.PP
30. I\(aqm having problems resolving CNAMES I have set up.
.PP
31. I have a NS delegation, and MaraDNS is doing
strange things.
.PP
32. I am transferring a zone from another
server, but the NS records are these strange "synth-ip" records.
.PP
33. Where is the root.hints file?
.PP
34. Are there any plans to use autoconf to build
MaraDNS?
.PP
35. How do I change the compiler or compile-time flags
with MaraDNS\(aq build process?
.PP
36. Will you make a package for the particular Linux
distribution I am using?
.PP
37. I am using the native Windows port of MaraDNS,
and some features are not working.
.PP
38. MaraDNS isn\(aqt starting up
.PP
39. You make a lot of releases of MaraDNS; at our
ISP/IT department, updating software is non-trivial.
.RE
.PP
.PP
.in -3
\fBANSWERS\fR
.PP
.PP
.in -3
\fB1. I\(aqm still using version 1.0 of MaraDNS\fR
.PP
MaraDNS 1.0 will continue to be supported until December 21, 2007; this
means that MaraDNS 1.0 bug fixes will
still be applied. After 2007/12/21, MaraDNS 1.0 will no longer be fully
supported; the only updates, at that point, would be bugtraq-worthy
critical
security fixes. Not even these security updates will be applied after
December 21, 2010.
.PP
People who wish to run MaraDNS 1.0 unsupported after 2010/12/21 need to
keep
in mind that MaraDNS 1.0 is
.I "not"
Y2038 compliant, and will have
problems starting in 2036 or so. MaraDNS 1.2, on the other hand, is
fully
Y2038 compliant.
.PP
There is still a FAQ for version 1.0 of MaraDNS available
here.
.PP
Updating from 1.0 to 1.2 requires a minimum number of changes; with
most
configurations, MaraDNS 1.2 is fully compatible with MaraDNS 1.0 data
files. Details are in the updating document
in the tutorial.
.PP
While csv1 zone files are fully supported in MaraDNS 1.2, there is a
Perl
script for updating from CSV1 to CSV2 zone files in the tools/
directory of MaraDNS 1.2.
.PP
.in -3
\fB2. How do I try out MaraDNS?\fR
.PP
.PP
Read the quick
start guide, which is the file named 0QuickStart in the MaraDNS
distribution.
.PP
.PP
.in -3
\fB3. What license is MaraDNS released under?\fR
.PP
MaraDNS 1.2 is released with the following two-clause
BSD-type license:
.PP
.RS 4
Copyright (c) 2002-2007 Sam Trenholme
.PP
TERMS
.PP
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
are met:
.PP
1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.PP
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.PP
This software is provided \(aqas is\(aq with no guarantees of
correctness or
fitness for purpose.
.RE
.PP
.PP
.in -3
\fB4. How do I report bugs in MaraDNS?\fR
.PP
Please contact me; my email address is at
http://www.maradns.org/contact.html.
Please be sure to include all information requested there, including
the operating system you are using, the version of MaraDNS you are
using,
your mararc configuration file, and all relevant zone files.
.PP
.in -3
\fB5. Some of the postings to the mailing list do not talk about
MaraDNS!\fR
.PP
In cases where I post something to the mailing list which does not
directly
talk about MaraDNS, the subject line will not have [MARA] in it, but
will
have some form of the word CHATTER in it.
.PP
This way, people who do not like this can set up mail filters to filter
out
anything that comes from this list and doesn\(aqt have [MARA] in the
subject
line, or simply unsubscribe from the list and read the list from the
archives; if one needs to report a bug, they can subscribe to the list
again, post their bug, then unsubscribe after a week.
.PP
Another option is to set up one\(aqs Freshmeat preferences to be
notified
in email every time I update MaraDNS at Freshmeat. This will give one
email notice of any critical bug fixes without needing to be
subscribed to the mailing list.
.PP
The web page http://www.maradns.org/
has a link to the mailing list archives.
.PP
.in -3
\fB6. How do I get off the mailing list?\fR
.PP
Send an email to list-request@maradns.org with "unsubscribe" as the
subject line.
.PP
.in -3
\fB7. How do I set up reverse DNS on MaraDNS?\fR
.PP
Reverse DNS (sometimes called "reverse mapping") is set up by using
PTR (pointer) records. For example, the PTR record which performs
the reverse DNS lookup for the ip 10.2.3.4 looks like this in a CSV2
zone
file:
.PP
.RS 4
4.3.2.10.in-addr.arpa. PTR www.example.com. ~
.RE
.PP
.PP
It is also possible, on MaraDNS 1.2.05 and more recent releases, to
use a special "FQDN4" which automatically sets up the reverse
mapping of a given record:
.PP
.RS 4
www.example.com. FQDN6 10.2.3.4 ~
.RE
.PP
If you wish to have a PTR (reverse DNS lookup; getting a DNS name from
a
numeric IP) record work on the internet at large, it is not a simple
matter of just adding a record like this to a MaraDNS zonefile. One
also
needs control of the appropriate in-addr.arpa. domain.
.PP
While it can make logical sense to contact the IP 10.11.12.13 when
trying
to get the reverse DNS lookup (fully qualified domain name) for a given
IP, DNS servers don\(aqt do this. DNS server, instead, contact the root
DNS servers for a given in-addr.arpa name to get the reverse DNS
lookup,
just like they do with any other record type.
.PP
When an internet service provider is given a block of IPs, they are
also
given control of the DNS zones which allow them to control reverse DNS
lookups for those IPs. While it is possible to obtain a domain and run
a DNS server without the knowledge or intervention of an ISP, being
able to control reverse DNS lookups for those IPs requires ISP
intervention.
.PP
.in -3
\fB8. I am on a slow network, and MaraDNS can not process recursive
queries\fR
.PP
MaraDNS, by default, only waits two seconds for a reply from a remote
DNS server. This default can be increased by adding a line like this
in the mararc file:
.PP
.RS 4

.nf
timeout_seconds = 5 
.fi

.RE
.PP
Note that making this too high will slow MaraDNS down when DNS servers
are down, which is, alas, all too common on today\(aqs internet.
.PP
.in -3
\fB9. When I try to run MaraDNS, I get a cryptic error message.\fR
.PP
There is usually some context of where there is a syntax error in a
data file before the cryptic error message. For example, when there
is a syntax error in a csv2 zone file, MaraDNS will tell you exactly
at what point it had to terminate parsing of the zone file.
.PP
If MaraDNS does return a cryptic error message without letting you know
what is wrong, let me know
so that I can fix the bug. MaraDNS is designed
to be easy to use; cryptic error messages go against this spirit.
.PP
.in -3
\fB10. After I start MaraDNS, I can not see the process when I run
netstat -na \fR
.PP
Udp services do not have a prominent "LISTEN" when netstat is run.
.PP
When MaraDNS is up, the relevant line in the netstat output looks
like this:
udp 0 0 127.0.0.1:53 0.0.0.0:*
.PP
While on the topic of netstat, if you run netstat -nap as root
on Linux and some other *nix operating systems, you can see the names
of
the processes which are providing internet services.
.PP
.in -3
\fB11. What string library does MaraDNS use?\fR
.PP
.PP
MaraDNS uses its own string library, which is called the "js_string"
library. Man pages for most of the functions in the js_string library
are in the folder doc/man of the MaraDNS
distribution
.PP
.in -3
\fB12. Why does MaraDNS use a multi-threaded model?\fR
.PP
.PP
The multi-threaded model is, plain and simple, the simplest way to
write
a functioning recursive DNS server. There is a reason why MaraDNS,
pdnsd, and
BIND 9 all use the multi-threaded model.
.PP
I am planning on improving MaraDNS\(aq threaded model to not spawn a
thread
for each and every uncached request.
.PP
.in -3
\fB13. I feel that XXX feature should be added to MaraDNS\fR
.PP
.PP
The only thing that will convince me to implement a given feature for
MaraDNS is cold, hard cash. If you want me to keep a given feature
proprietary, you better have lots of cold hard cash. If you\(aqre
willing
to opensource your feature, less cash should be sufficient.
.PP
Keep in mind that both the BIND and NSD name servers were
developed by having the programmers paid to work on the programs.
PowerDNS was originally commercial software with the author only
reluctantly made GPL after seeing that the market
for a commercial DNS server is very small. All of the other DNS servers
which have been developed as hobbyist projects (Posadis, Pdnsd, and
djbdns)
are no longer being actively worked on by the primary developer.
.PP
My current plans for MaraDNS are visible on the
roadmap page for MaraDNS.
.PP
If I see a large
MaraDNS community and a strong demand for new features from that
community,
I will consider their wishes. Especially if some of the members of
the community
have large bank accounts. Should ipv6 start to become dominant, I will
update
MaraDNS to have full ipv6 support. Should some other technology come
along
that will require an update to MaraDNS for MaraDNS to continue to
function
as a DNS server, I may very well update MaraDNS to use that technology.
.PP
.in -3
\fB14. I feel that MaraDNS should use another documentation format\fR
.PP
.PP
The reason that MaraDNS uses its own documentation format is to satisfy
both
the needs of translators to have a unified document format and my own
need to use a documentation format that is simple enough to be readily
understood and which I can add features on an
as needed basis.
.PP
The documentation format is essentially simplified HTML with some
special tags added to meet MaraDNS\(aq special needs.
.PP
This gives me more flexibility to adapt the documentation format to
changing needs. For example, when someone pointed out that it\(aqs not
a good idea to have man pages with hi-bit characters, it was a simple
matter
to add a new HIBIT tag which allows man pages to be without
hi-bit characters, and other document formats to retain hi-bit
characters.
.PP
Having a given program have its own documentation format is not
without precedent; Perl uses its own "pod" documentation format.
.PP
.in -3
\fB15. Is there any process I need to follow to add a patch to
MaraDNS?\fR
.PP
.PP
Yes.
.PP
Here is the procedure for making a proper patch:
.PP
.TP 2
*
Enter the directory that the file is in, for example
maradns-1.2.00/server
.TP 2
*
Copy over the file that you wish to modify to another file
name. For example: cp MaraDNS.c MaraDNS.c.orig
.TP 2
*
Edit the file in question, e.g: vi MaraDNS.c
.TP 2
*
After editing, do something like this:
.br
diff -u MaraDNS.c.orig MaraDNS.c > maradns.patch
.TP 2
*
Make sure the modified version compiles cleanly
.PP
Send a patch to me in email, along with a statement that you place
the contents of the patch under MaraDNS\(aq BSD license. If I find that
the patch
works well, I will integrate it in to MaraDNS.
.PP
.in -3
\fB16. Can MaraDNS act as a primary nameserver?\fR
.PP
.PP
Yes.
.PP
The zoneserver program serves zones so that other DNS servers
can be secondaries for zones which MaraDNS serves. This is a separate
program from the maradns server, which processes both
authoritative and recursive UDP DNS queries.
.PP
See the DNS
master document in the MaraDNS tutorial for details.
.PP
.in -3
\fB17. Can MaraDNS act as a secondary nameserver?\fR
.PP
.PP
Yes.
.PP
Please read the
DNS slave document, which is part of the MaraDNS tutorial.
.PP
.in -3
\fB18. What is the difference between an authoritative and a recursive
DNS server?\fR
.PP
A recursive DNS server is a DNS server that is able to contact other
DNS
servers in order to resolve a given domain name label. This is the kind
of DNS server one points to in /etc/resolve.conf
.PP
An authoritative DNS server is a DNS server that a recursive server
contacts in order to find out the answer to a given DNS query.
.PP
.in -3
\fB19. The fetchzone client isn\(aqt allowing me to add certain
hostnames to my zone\fR
.PP
For security reasons, MaraDNS\(aq fetchzone client does not
add records which are not part of the zone in question. For example,
if someone has a zone for example.com, and this record in the zone:
.PP
1.1.1.10.in-addr.arpa. PTR dns.example.com.
.PP
MaraDNS will not add the record, since the record is out-of-bailiwick.
In
other words, it is a host name that does not end in .example.com.
.PP
There are two workarounds for this issue:
.TP 2
*
Create a zone file for 1.1.10.in-addr.arpa., and put the PTR records
there.
.TP 2
*
Use rcp, rsync, or another method to copy over the zone files in
question.
.PP
.PP
.in -3
\fB20. Is MaraDNS portable?\fR
.PP
.PP
MaraDNS is developed on a CentOS 3 and Windows XP dual boot laptop.
MaraDNS may compile or run on other systems--there are official MaraDNS
ports for Debian/Ubuntu, Slackware, FreeBSD, and NetBSD. Note that
MaraDNS
needs a system with a robust threading library, which some systems do
not
have.
.PP
.in -3
\fB21. Can I use MaraDNS in Windows?\fR
.PP
.PP
Yes. There is both a partial mingw32 (native win32 binary) port and a
full
Cygwin port of MaraDNS; both of these ports are part of the native
build
of MaraDNS.
.PP
.in -3
\fB22. MaraDNS freezes up after being used for a while\fR
.PP
If you are using MaraDNS 1.2.03.1 (or any 1.1 release, for that matter)
on
Linux, upgrade to version 1.2.03.2. There is a bug with the Linux
kernel
which causes UDP clients to freeze unless code is written to work
around
the kernel bug. This workaround was first introduced in MaraDNS 1.0.28
and 1.1.35 and accidently disabled in 1.2.03.1.
.PP
If using your ISP\(aqs name servers or some other name servers which
are not, in fact, root name servers, please make sure that you are
using the upstream_servers dictionary variable instead of the
root_servers dictionary variable.
.PP
If you still see MaraDNS freeze up after making this correction, please
send a bug report to the mailing list.
.PP
.in -3
\fB23. What kind of Python integration does MaraDNS have\fR
.PP
The mararc file uses the same syntax that Python uses; in fact, Python
can parse a properly formatted mararc file.
.PP
There is currently no other integration with Python.
.PP
.in -3
\fB24. Doesn\(aqt "kvar" mean "four" in Esperanto?\fR
.PP
Indeed, it does. However the use of "kvar" in the MaraDNS source
code only coincidentally is an Esperanto word. "kvar" is short
for "Kiwi variable"; a lot of the parsing code comes from the code
used in the Kiwi spam filter project.
.PP
.in -3
\fB25. How scalable is MaraDNS?\fR
.PP
MaraDNS is optimized for serving a small number of domains as quickly
as possible. That said, MaraDNS is remarkably efficnent for serving a
large number of domains, as long as the server MaraDNS is on has the
memory to fit all of the domains, and as long as the startup time for
loading a large number of domains can be worked around.
.PP
The "big-O" or "theta" growth rates for various MaraDNS functions
are as follows, where N is the number of authoritative host names being
served:
.PP

.nf
Startup time                            N
Memory usage                            N
Processing incoming DNS requests        1
.fi
.PP
As can be seen, MaraDNS will process 1 or 100000 domains in the same
amount
of time, once the domain names are loaded in to memory.
.PP
.in -3
\fB26. I am having problems setting upstream_servers\fR
.PP
The upstream_servers mararc variable is set thusly:
.PP
.RS 4
upstream_servers["."] = "10.3.28.79, 10.2.19.83"
.RE
.PP
Note the ["."]. The reason for this is so future versions
of MaraDNS may have more fine-grained control over the
upstream_servers and root_servers values.
.PP
Note that the upstream_servers variable needs to be initialized
before being used via upstream_servers = {} (the reason for this
is so that a mararc file has 100% Python-compatible syntax). A complete
mararc file that uses upstream_servers may look like this:

.nf
ipv4_bind_addresses = "127.0.0.1"
chroot_dir = "/etc/maradns"
recursive_acl = "127.0.0.1/8"
upstream_servers = {}
upstream_servers["."] = "10.1.2.3, 10.2.4.6"
.fi
.PP

.in -3
\fB27. Why doesn\(aqt the MaraDNS.org web page validate?\fR
.PP
HTML pages on the MaraDNS.org web site should validate as
HTML 4.0 Transitional. However, the CSS will not validate.
.PP
I have designed MaraDNS\(aq web page to be usable and as attractive as
possible
in any major browser released in the last ten years. Cross-browser
support
is more important than strict W3
validation. The reason why the CSS does not validate is because
I need a way to make sure there is always a scrollbar on the web page,
even if the content is not big enough to merit one; this is to avoid
the
content jumping from page to page. There is no standard
CSS tag that lets me do this. I\(aqm using a non-standard tag to enable
this in Gecko (Firefox\(aqs rendering engine); this is enabled by
default in
Trident (Internet Explorer\(aqs rendering engine). The standards are
deficient
and blind adherence to them would result in an inferior web site.
.PP
There are also two validation warnings generated by redefinitions which
are needed as part of the CSS filters used to make the site attractive
on
older browsers with limited CSS support.
.PP
On a related note, the reason why I use tables instead of CSS for some
of
the layout is because Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and other browsers
do
not have support for the max-width CSS property. Without this
property, the web page will not scale down correctly without using
tables.
Additionally, tables allow a reasonably attractive header in browsers
without CSS support.
.PP
.in -3
\fB28. How do MX records work?\fR
.PP
How MX records work:
.TP 2
*
The mail transport agent (Sendmail, Postfix, Qmail, MS Exchange, etc.)
looks up the MX record for the domain
.TP 2
*
For each of the records returned, the MTA (mail transport agent) looks
up the IP for the names.
.TP 2
*
It will choose, at random, any of the MXes with the lowest priority
number.
.TP 2
*
Should that server fail, it will try another server with the same
priority number.
.TP 2
*
Should all MX records with a given priority number fail, the MTA will
try sending email to any of the MX records with the second-lowest
priority value.
.PP
As an aside, do not have MX records point to CNAMEs.
.PP
.in -3
\fB29. Does MaraDNS have support for SPF?\fR
.PP
SPF, or sender policy framework, is method of using DNS that makes
it more difficult to forge email. MaraDNS has full support for SPF,
both via TXT records and, starting with MaraDNS 1.2.08, via RFC4408
SPF records.
.PP
SPF configuration is beyond the scope of MaraDNS\(aq documentation.
However,
at the time of this FAQ entry being written (June, 2006), information
and documentation concerning SPF is available at
http://openspf.org. The BIND examples
will work in MaraDNS csv2 zone files as long as the double quotes (")
are
replaced by single quotes (\(aq). For example, a SPF TXT record that
looks like example.net. IN TXT "v=spf1 +mx a:colo.example.com/28 -all"
in a BIND zone file will look like
example.net. TXT \(aqv=spf1 +mx a:colo.example.com/28 -all\(aq in a
MaraDNS zone file. MaraDNS version 1.2.08 and higher can also make
the corresponding SPF record, which will have the syntax
example.net. SPF \(aqv=spf1 +mx a:colo.example.com/28 -all\(aq.
.PP
.in -3
\fB30. I\(aqm having problems resolving CNAMES I have set up.\fR
.PP
This is probably because you have set up what MaraDNS calls a dangling
CNAME
record.
.PP
Let us suppose we have a CNAME record without an A record in the local
DNS server\(aqs database, such as:

.nf
	google.example.com. CNAME www.google.com. ~
.fi
.PP
This record, which is a CNAME record for "google.example.com", points
to "www.google.com". Some DNS servers will recursively look up
www.google.com, and render the above record like this:

.nf
	google.example.com. CNAME www.google.com. ~
	www.google.com. CNAME 66.102.7.104 ~
.fi
.PP
For security reasons, MaraDNS doesn\(aqt do this. Instead, MaraDNS will
simply
output:

.nf
	google.example.com. CNAME www.google.com. ~
.fi

Some stub resolvers will be unable to resolve google.example.com as
a consequence.
.PP
If you set up MaraDNS to resolve CNAMEs thusly, you will get a warning
in your logs about having a dangling CNAME record.
.PP
If you want to remove these warnings, add the following to your mararc
file:

.nf
	no_cname_warnings = 1
.fi
.PP
Information about how to get MaraDNS to resolve dangling CNAME
records is in the tutorial file dangling.html
.PP
.in -3
\fBI have a NS delegation, and MaraDNS is doing strange things.\fR
.PP
In the case of there being a NS delegation, MaraDNS handles recursive
queries and non-recursive DNS queries differently. Basically, unless
you use askmara with the -n option, dig with the
+norecuse option, or nslookup with the -norec
option, MaraDNS will try to recursively resolve the record that is
delegated.
.PP
The thinking is this: A normal recursive DNS query is usually one
where one wants to know the final DNS output. So, if MaraDNS
delegates a given record to another DNS server, and gets a recursive
request for said query, MaraDNS will recursively resolve the query
for you.
.PP
For example, let us suppose we have a mararc file that looks
like this:

.nf
chroot_dir = "/etc/maradns"
ipv4_bind_addresses = "10.1.2.3"
chroot_dir = "/etc/maradns"
recursive_acl = "127.0.0.1/8, 10.0.0.0/8"
csv2 = {}
csv2["example.com."] = "db.example.com"
.fi

And a db.example.com file that looks like this:

.nf
www.example.com. 	10.1.2.3 ~
joe.example.com. 	NS ns.joe.example.com. ~
ns.joe.example.com.	A 10.1.2.4 ~
.fi

Next, you are trying to find out why www.joe.example.com is not
resolving. If you naively send a query to 10.1.2.3 for
www.joe.example.com
as askmara Awww.joe.example.com. 10.1.2.3 or as
dig @10.1.2.3 www.joe.example.com. or as
nslookup www.joe.example.com. 10.1.2.3, you will
.B "not"
get any information that will help you solve the problem, since
10.1.2.3
will try to contact 10.1.2.4 to resolve www.joe.example.com.
.PP
The solution is to run your DNS query client thusly:
.TP 2
*
Askmara would be run thusly:
.PP
askmara -n Awww.joe.example.com. 10.1.2.3
.PP
.TP 2
*
Dig would be run thusly:
.PP
dig +norecurse @10.1.2.3 www.joe.example.com
.PP
.TP 2
*
Nslookup would be run thusly:
.PP
nslookup -norec www.joe.example.com 10.1.2.3
.PP
.PP
This will allow you to see that packets MaraDNS actually sends to
a recursive DNS server.
.PP
As an aside, this particular problem will not happen if MaraDNS is
run only as an authoritative nameserver.
.PP
.in -3
\fBI am transferring a zone from another server, but the NS records are
these strange "synth-ip" records. \fR
.PP
MaraDNS expects, in csv2 zone files, for all
delegation NS records to be between the SOA record and the first
non-NS record.
.PP
If a zone looks like this:

.nf
example.net. +600 soa ns1.example.net. hostmaster@example.net 
10 10800 3600 604800 1080 ~
example.net. +600 mx 10 mail.example.net. ~
example.net. +600 a 10.2.3.5 ~
example.net. +600 ns ns1.example.net. ~
example.net. +600 ns ns3.example.net. ~
mail.example.net. +600 a 10.2.3.7 ~
www.example.net. +600 a 10.2.3.11 ~
.fi

Then the NS records will be "synth-ip" records.
.PP
The zone should look like this:

.nf
example.net. +600 soa ns1.example.net. hostmaster@example.net 
10 10800 3600 604800 1080 ~
example.net. +600 ns ns1.example.net. ~
example.net. +600 ns ns3.example.net. ~
example.net. +600 mx 10 mail.example.net. ~
example.net. +600 a 10.2.3.5 ~
mail.example.net. +600 a 10.2.3.7 ~
www.example.net. +600 a 10.2.3.11 ~
.fi

This will remove the "synth-ip" records.
.PP
To automate this process, this awk script is useful:

.nf
fetchzone whatever.zone.foo 10.1.2.3 | awk \(aq
{if($3 ~ /ns/ || $3 ~ /soa/){print}
else{a = a "\\n" $0}}
END{print a}\(aq > zonefile.csv2
.fi

Replace "whatever.zone.foo" with the name of the zone you are
fetchin 10.1.2.3 with the IP address of the DNS master, and
zonefile.csv2 with the name of the zone file MaraDNS loads.
.PP
.in -3
\fBWhere is the root.hints file?\fR
.PP
MaraDNS, unlike BIND, does not need a complicated root.hints file in
order to have custom root servers. In order to change the root.hints
file, add something like this to your mararc file:

.nf
root_servers["."] =  "131.161.247.232,"
root_servers["."] += "208.185.249.250,"
root_servers["."] += "66.227.42.140,"
root_servers["."] += "66.227.42.149,"
root_servers["."] += "65.243.92.254"
.fi

Note that there is no "+=" in the first line, and the last line does
not
have a comma at the end. Read the recursive tutorial document for more
information.
.PP
.in -3
\fBAre there any plans to use autoconf to build MaraDNS?\fR
.PP
No. OK, let me qualify that: I won\(aqt do it unless you pay
me enough money.
.PP
In more detail, MaraDNS does not use autoconf for the following
reasons:
.TP 2
*
Autoconf is designed to solve a problem that existed in the mid 1990s
but does not exist today: A large number of different incompatible C
compilers and libc implementations. These days, most systems are using
gcc as the compiler and some version of glibc as the libc. There is
no longer a need, for example, to figure out whether a given
implementation of getopt() allows \(aq--\(aq options.
MaraDNS\(aqs ./configure script can be run in only a second or
two; compare this to the 3-5 minute process autoconf\(aqs ./configure
needs.
.TP 2
*
Autoconf leaves GPL-tained files in a program\(aqs build tree. MaraDNS
is
licensed under a BSD license that is
.I "not"
GPL-compatible, so
MaraDNS can not be distributed with these GPL-licensed files.
.PP
This leads us to the next question:
.PP
.in -3
\fBHow do I change the compiler or compile-time flags with MaraDNS\(aq
build process?\fR
.PP
To change the compiler used by MaraDNS:
.TP 2
*
Run the ./configure script
.TP 2
*
Open up the file Makefile with an editor
.TP 2
*
Look for a line that starts with CC
.TP 2
*
If there is no line that starts with CC, create one just before
the line that starts with FLAGS
.TP 2
*
Change (or create) that line to look something like CC=gcc296
In this example, the 2.96 version of gcc is used to compile MaraDNS.
.TP 2
*
Note that it is important to
.B "not"
remove anything from this line
you do not understand; doing so will make MaraDNS unable to compile
or run. So, if the CC line looks like
CC=gcc $(LDFLAGS) -DNO_FLOCK and you want to compile
with gcc 2.96, change the line to look like
CC=gcc296 $(LDFLAGS) -DNO_FLOCK retaining the flags
added by the configuration script.
.PP
Changing compile-time flags is a similar process:
.TP 2
*
Run the ./configure script
.TP 2
*
Open up the file Makefile with an editor
.TP 2
*
Look for a line that starts with FLAGS
.TP 2
*
Change (or create) that line to look something like FLAGS=-O3
In this example, MaraDNS is compiled with the -O3 option.
.TP 2
*
Note that it is important to
.B "not"
remove anything from this line
you do not understand; doing so will make MaraDNS unable to compile
or run. So, if the FLAGS line looks like
FLAGS=-O2 -Wall -DSELECT_PROBLEM and you want to compile
at optimization level three, change this line to look like
FLAGS=-O2 -Wall -DSELECT_PROBLEM retaining the flags
added by the configuration script. -DSELECT_PROBLEM for example,
is needed in the Linux compile or MaraDNS will have problems with
freezing up.
.PP
.PP
.in -3
\fBWill you make a package for the particular Linux distribution I am
using?\fR
.PP
No. OK, let me qualify that: I won\(aqt do it unless you pay
me enough money.
.PP
There are MaraDNS packages for a number of different distributions of
Linux and other operating systems. On the MaraDNS site, there is
a MaraDNS package for CentOS/Red Hat Enterprise Linux available. There
is also usually an up-to-date Slackware package available. In addition,
there is a Debian package in the Debian packages collection, a FreeBSD
port of MaraDNS, a Ubuntu package which is derived from the Debian
package,
and undoubtably other MaraDNS packages floating around the internet.
.PP
If you wish to have a package for your particular version of Linux (or
MacOS X or BSD or...), you can use one of the above packages as a
starting
point for making your package. For example, other RPM-based
distributions
can use the CentOS RPM package as a baseline (the .spec file is in the
build/ directory). I can not help you with any problems you
may encounter making this package since I do not have your particular
version of Linux installed on my computer.
.PP
As an aside, some of the MaraDNS packages floating around on the
internet
are out of date (*cough*, Debian, *cough*)<sup><font
size=-2>1</font></sup>. Please make sure, that if you get a third-party
package from the internet, the package is for either MaraDNS 1.0.41,
MaraDNS 1.2.12.08, or MaraDNS 1.3.07.05. Older versions of MaraDNS are
not supported.
.PP
Footnote 1: Debian has a somewhat silly policy that, once a package is
declared "stable", they will basically not update it unless there is a
Bugtraq security advisory for the package in question. This policy is
a good policy for programs made by pimply-faced 16-year-olds who
don\(aqt
know how to manage a release cycle nor a bugfix-only branch, but
doesn\(aqt
make sense for MaraDNS. As I write this, the Debian\(aqs "stable"
version of
MaraDNS is 1.2.12.04, which is about a year behind in terms of
bugfixes.
I, annoyingly enough, get bug reports from Debian users telling me
about
bugs I have already fixed in the 1.2 branch of MaraDNS.
.PP
Now, to be fair to Debian, their policies do allow me to backport
bugfixes
to the 1.2.12.04 release of MaraDNS, and the patches do get reviewed by
somone else, which minimizes bugfixes introducing new bugs (Yes, I have
done that), but there are not enough volunteers to review all of the
bugfixes I have made since 1.2.12.04. So, Debian users get stuck with
an old, buggy version of MaraDNS. The policy would work if there were
enough volunteers to actually review all of my post-1.2.12.04 bugfixes,
but the people who created the policy did not take in to account the
logistics of volunteer work.
.PP
.in -3
\fBI am using the native Windows port of MaraDNS, and some features are
not working.\fR
.PP
Since Windows 32 does not have some features that *NIX OSes have, the
native
Windows port does not have all of the features of the *NIX version of
MaraDNS. In particular, the following features are disabled:
.TP 2
*
ipv6 (this is actually a mingw32, not a Windows deficiency)
.TP 2
*
The chroot_dir mararc variable
.TP 2
*
The maradns_gid and maradns_uid mararc variables
.TP 2
*
The maxprocs mararc variable
.TP 2
*
The synth_soa_serial variable can not have a value of 2
.PP
If any of the above features are desired, try compiling MaraDNS using
Cygwin. Note that the Cygwin port of MaraDNS does not have ipv6
support,
and that while chroot_dir works in Cygwin, it does not have
the security that the *NIX chroot() call has.
.PP
.in -3
\fBMaraDNS isn\(aqt starting up\fR
.PP
This is usually caused by a syntax error in one\(aqs mararc file, or by
another MaraDNS process already running. To see what is happening, look
at your system log (/var/log/messages in Centos 3) to see what
errors MaraDNS reports. If you do not know how to look at a system
log, you can also invoke MaraDNS from the command line as root; any
errors
will be visible when starting MaraDNS.
.PP
.in -3
\fBYou make a lot of releases of MaraDNS; at our ISP/IT department,
updating software is non-trivial.\fR
.PP
The number of releases seen in the changelog
is not an accurate reflection of how often someone using a stable
branch of MaraDNS will need to update.
.PP
There were only three updates to the 1.0 legacy branch in 2006, and (so
far)
only two updates to the 1.0 branch in 2007. The 1.2 branch
was updated frequently in the first half of 2006, since I felt MaraDNS
1.2
needed some features that didn\(aqt make it in to 1.2.00. During this
update
cycle, there was always a stable bugfix-only branch of MaraDNS.
.PP
In August of 2006, I stabilized the 1.2 branch and only five updates
have been done since then. Unless there is a critical bug, I only will
update
the 1.2 branch approximately once every six months or so.
.PP
I go to a great deal of effort to make sure MaraDNS releases are as
painless to update as possible. I ensure configuration file format
compatibility, even between major versions of MaraDNS. With the
exception
of configuration file parser bugfixes, MaraDNS 1.0 configuration files
are compatible with MaraDNS 1.2 and 1.3.
.PP
It is impossible to make code that is bug-free or without security
problems. This is especially true with code that runs on the public
internet.<sup><font size=-2>1</font></sup> Code has to be updated from
time to time. What I do in order to minimize the disruption caused by
an
update is to always have a stable bugfix-only branch of MaraDNS (right
now I
have
.I "three"
bugfix-only branches), and to, as much as possible, evenly
space out the bugfix updates.
.PP
Footnote 1: Even DJB\(aqs code has security problems. Both Qmail and
DjbDNS
have known security problems, and need to be patched before put on a
public
internet server.
.PP
.SH "BUGS"
.PP
In the unusual case of having a csv2 zone file with Macintosh-style
newlines
(as opposed to DOS or UNIX newlines), while the file will parse, any
errors
in the file will be reported as being on line 1.
.PP
The maximum allowed number of threads is 5000.
.PP
The system startup script included with MaraDNS assumes that the only
MaraDNS processes running are started by the script; it stops
.I "all"
MaraDNS processes running on the server when asked to stop MaraDNS.
.PP
When a resolver asks for an A record, and the A record is a CNAME
which points to a list of IPs, MaraDNS\(aq recursive resolver only
returns the first IP listed along with the CNAME. This is somewhat
worked around by having a CNAME record only stay in the recursive cache
for 15 minutes.
.PP
When a resolver asks for an A record, and the A record is a CNAME
that points to another CNAME (and possibly a longer CNAME chain), while
MaraDNS returns the correct IP (as long as the glueless level is not
exceeded), MaraDNS will incorrectly state that the first CNAME in the
chain directly points to the IP.
.PP
If a NS record points to a list of IPs, and the NS record in question
is a "glueless" record (MaraDNS had to go back to the root servers to
find out the IP of the machine in question), MaraDNS\(aq recursive
resolver
only uses the first listed IP as a name server.
.PP
When MaraDNS\(aq recursive resolver receives a "host not there" reply,
instead of using the SOA minimum of the "host not there" reply as
the TTL (Look at RFC1034
section 4.3.4), MaraDNS uses the TTL of the SOA
reply.
.PP
MaraDNS keeps referral NS records in the cache for one day instead of
the TTL specified by the remote server.
.PP
MaraDNS needs to use the
.B "zoneserver"
program to serve DNS records
over TCP. See
.B "zoneserver(8)"
for usage information.
.PP
MaraDNS does not use the zone file ("master file") format specified in
chapter 5 of RFC1035.
.PP
MaraDNS default behavior with star records is not RFC-compliant.
In more detail,
if a wildcard MX record exists in the form "*.example.com", and
there is an A record for "www.example.com", but no MX record for
"www.example.com", the correct behavior (based on RFC1034
section 4.3.3)
is to return "no host" (nothing in the answer section, SOA in the
authority section, 0 result code) for a MX request to
"www.example.com".
Instead, MaraDNS returns the MX record attached to "*.example.com".
This can be changed by setting bind_star_handling to 1.
.PP
Star records (what RFC1034 calls "wildcards") can not be attached to
NS records.
.PP
MaraDNS recursive resolver treats any TTL shorter than min_ttl seconds
(min_ttl_cname seconds when the record is a CNAME record)
as if the TTL in question was min_ttl (or min_ttl_cname) seconds long
when
determining when to expire a record from MaraDNS\(aq cache.
.PP
TTLs which are shorter than 20 seconds long are given a TTL of 20
seconds; TTLs which are more than 63072000 (2 years) long are given
a TTL of 2 years.
.PP
MaraDNS\(aq recursive resolver\(aqs method of deleting not recently
accessed
records from the cache when the cache starts to fill up can deleted
records
from the cache before they expire. Some people consider this
undesirable
behavior; I feel it is necessary behavior if one wishes to place a
limit on
the memory resources a DNS server may use.
.PP
MaraDNS\(aq recursive resolver stops resolving when it finds an answer
in the
AR section. This is a problem in the case where a given host name and
IP
is registered with the root name servers, and the registered IP is out
of
date. When this happens, a server "closer" to the root server will give
an out-of-date IP, even though the authoritative DNS servers for the
host in question have the correct IP. Note that resolving this will
result in increased DNS traffic.
.PP
MaraDNS, like every other known DNS implementation, only supports a
QDCOUNT of 0 or 1.
.PP
MaraDNS spawns a new thread for every single recursive DNS request
when the data in question is not in MaraDNS\(aq cache; this
makes MaraDNS an excellent stress tester for pthread implementations.
Many pthread implementations can not handle this kind of load;
symptoms include high memory usage and termination of the MaraDNS
process.
.PP
MaraDNS does not handle the case of a glueless in-bailiwick NS referral
very gracefully; this usually causes the zone pointed to by the
offending
NS record to be unreachable by MaraDNS, even if other DNS servers for
the domain have correct NS referrals.
.SH "UNIMPLEMENTED FEATURES"
.PP
.I "These are features which will not be implemented in the 1.2 release of MaraDNS:"
.PP
MaraDNS does not have a disk-based caching scheme for authoritative
zones.
.PP
MaraDNS\(aq UDP server only loads zone files while MaraDNS is first
started.
UDP Zone information can only be updated by stopping MaraDNS, and
restarting
MaraDNS again. Note that TCP zone files are loaded from the filesystem
at the time the client requests a zone.
.PP
MaraDNS does not have support for allowing given host names to only
resolve for a limited range of IPs querying the DNS server, or for host
names to resolve differently, depending on the IP querying the host
name.
.PP
MaraDNS only has limited authoritative-only support for IPv6.
.PP
MaraDNS only allows wildcards
at the beginning or end of a host name. E.g. names with wildcards like
"foo.*.example.com". "www.*" will work, however, if a default zonefile
is
set up.
.PP
MaraDNS does not have support for MRTG or any other SNMP-based logging
mechanism.
.SH "LEGAL DISCLAIMER"
.PP
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHORS \(aq\(aqAS IS\(aq\(aq AND ANY
EXPRESS
OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE
LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR
CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF
SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR
BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY,
WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE
OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE,
EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
.SH "AUTHORS"
.PP
Sam Trenholme (http://www.samiam.org) is
responsible for this man page.
.PP
MaraDNS is written by me, Sam Trenholme, with a little help from my
friends. Naturally, all errors in MaraDNS are my own (but read the
disclaimer above).
.PP
Here is a partial list of people who have provided assistance:
.PP
Floh has generously set up a FreeBSD 4, FreeBSD 6, and Mac OS X system
so
that I can port MaraDNS to more platforms.
.PP
Albert Lee has provided countless bug reports, and, nicely enough,
patches
to fix said bugs. He has also made improvements to the code in the tcp
"zoneserver".
.PP
Franky Van Liedekerke has provided much invaluable assistance. As just
one
example, he provided invaluable assistance in getting MaraDNS to
compile on
Solaris. In addition, he has provided much valuable SQA help.
.PP
Christian Kurz, who has provided invaluable bug reports, especially
when I had to re-implement the core hashing algorithm.
.PP
Remmy, who is providing both the web space and a mailing list
for maradns.org.
.PP
Phil Homewood, who provided invaluable assistance with finding and
fixing
bugs in the authoritative portion of the MaraDNS server. He helped me
plug memory leaks, find uninitialized variables being used, and found a
number of bugs I was unable to find.
.PP
Albert Prats kindly provided Spanish translations for various text
files.
.PP
Shin Zukeran provided a patch to recursive.c which properly makes a
normal
null-terminated string from a js_string object, to send as an argument
to
open() so we can get the rijndael key for the PRNG.
.PP
D Richard Felker III has provided invaluable bug reports. By looking at
his
bug reports, I have been able to hunt down and fix many problems that
the
recursive nameserver had, in addition to at least one problem with the
authoritative nameserver.
.PP
Ole Tange has also given me many valuable MaraDNS bug reports.
.PP
Florin Iucha provided a tip in the FAQ for how to compile MaraDNS on
OpenBSD.
.PP
Roy Arends (one of the BIND developers, as it turns out) found a
serious
security problem with MaraDNS, where MaraDNS would answer answers, and
pointed it out to me.
.PP
Code used as the basis for the psudo-random-number generator was
written
by Vincent Rijmen, Antoon Bosselaers, and Paulo Barreto. I appreciate
these programmers making the code public domain, which is the only
license
under which I can add code to MaraDNS under.
.PP
Ross Johnson and others have made a Win32 port of the Pthreads library;
this has made a native win32 port of MaraDNS possible.
.PP
I also appreciate the work of Dr. Brian Gladman and Fritz Schneider,
who have both written independent implementations of AES from which I
obtained test vectors. With the help of their hard work, I was able to
discover a subtle security problem that previous releases of MaraDNS
had.