FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
INDEX
1. How to I try out MaraDNS? 2. What license is
MaraDNS released under?
3. How do I get MaraDNS to bind to multiple IP
addresses?
4. How come BIND 9 can not process MaraDNS queries
when MaraDNS is bound to multiple IP addresses?
5. How do I report bugs in MaraDNS?
6. Some of the postings to the mailing list do not
talk about MaraDNS!
7. How to I get off the mailing list?
8. How do I set up reverse DNS on MaraDNS?
9. I am on a slow network, and MaraDNS can not process
recursive queries
10. When I try to run MaraDNS, I get a Fatal error:
Error running populate_main program or a Fatal error:
init_cache() failed error message.
11. I am trying to register a domain under the .au or
the .de name space,and my registrar is not taking my
domain name
12. After I start MaraDNS, I can not see the process
when I run netstat -na
13. What string library does MaraDNS use?
14. Why is MaraDNS public domain instead of BSD or GPL
licensed?
15. Why does MaraDNS use a multi-threaded model?
16. I feel that XXX feature should be added to MaraDNS
17. I feel that MaraDNS should use another
documentation format
18. Is there any process I need to follow to add a
patch to MaraDNS?
19. Can MaraDNS act as a primary nameserver?
20. Can MaraDNS act as a secondary nameserver?
21. What is the difference between an authoritative
and a recursive DNS server?
22. The getzone client isn't allowing me to add
certain hostnames to my zone
23. I have having problems transferring zones from
MaraDNS' zone server to a BIND zone transfer client
24. Is MaraDNS portable?
25. How do I compile MaraDNS on OpenBSD?
26. Can I use MaraDNS in Windows?
27. MaraDNS freezes up after being used for a while
28. What kind of Python integration does MaraDNS have
29. Doesn't "kvar" mean "four" in Esperanto?
30. How do I make MaraDNS' time stamps human-readable?
ANSWERS
1. How to I try out MaraDNS?
Read the quick start guide, which is the file named
0QuickStart in the MaraDNS distribution.
2. What license is MaraDNS released under?
None, actually. MaraDNS is released to the public domain.
3. How do I get MaraDNS to bind to multiple IP addresses?
The current method is to run multiple copies of MaraDNS,
each using its own mararc file.
E.g:
maradns -f /etc/mararc.1
maradns -f /etc/mararc.2
etc.
If you just want to bind to all IP addresses your computer
has, bind to the IP "0.0.0.0"; however this can cause
problems. See the next question.
I don't think this will be too hard to correctly
implement, since I already have code for specifying
multiple IP addresses with the IP ACL code used by the
zone server. Until then, I will add this workaround to the
FAQ.
4. How come BIND 9 can not process MaraDNS queries when
MaraDNS is bound to multiple IP addresses?
In certain cricumstances, when MaraDNS is bound to more
than one IP address, the underlying OS will send the UDP
reply with a different IP than the IP the UDP query was
sent to. This will confuse BIND 9, since BIND 9's method
for listening for requests that BIND has sent out expects
the reply to come from the same IP that the request was
sent to.
5. How do I report bugs in MaraDNS?
Before reporting a bug that MaraDNS has, please read the
relevant man pages. The man pages should be installed when
one installs MaraDNS, and, in addition, are available in
the doc/man directory of the MaraDNS source tarball. (It
is also possible that you are reading the man page right
now)
Some MaraDNS man pages (namely, the man pages for maradns,
askmara, zoneserver, and mararc) have a section, titled
"BUGS", which list already known bugs which I feel are not
important enough to fix before the 1.0 release of MaraDNS.
Bug reports which mention one of these bugs will be
cheerfully ignored (or given a polite "thanks for the
report, in this man page the bug is already mentioned"
message if I am in a particularly good mood).
Subscribe to the mailing list by sending mail to list-
subscribe@maradns.org with "subscribe" as the subject
line, and describe the bug by sending email to
list@maradns.org.
6. Some of the postings to the mailing list do not talk about
MaraDNS!
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. This way, people who do not like this
can set up mail filters to filter out anything that comes
from this list and doesn't 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.
Another option is to set up one's 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.
The web page http://www.maradns.org/ has a link to the
mailing list archives.
7. How to I get off the mailing list?
Send an email to list-request@maradns.org with
"unsubscribe" as the subject line.
8. How do I set up reverse DNS on MaraDNS?
By using PTR (pointer) records. For example, the PTR
record which performs the reverse DNS lookup for the ip
1.2.3.4 looks like this in a CSV1 zone file:
P4.3.2.1.in-addr.arpa.|86400|www.example.com.
9. I am on a slow network, and MaraDNS can not process
recursive queries
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:
timeout_seconds = 5
Note that making this too high will slow MaraDNS down when
DNS servers are down, which is, alas, all too common on
today's internet.
10. When I try to run MaraDNS, I get a Fatal error: Error
running populate_main program or a Fatal error: init_cache()
failed error message.
If a line in a mararc file is too long, you will see,
before the "Fatal error: Error running populate_main
program" message, a message showing you the line number
which is too long and the filename with the offending
line. While it is possible to increase this limit by
changing the appropriate variable in the MaraDns.h file,
the current limit is in line with the 512-byte limit that
UDP DNS packets have; MaraDNS does not currently support
DNS over TCP. Otherwise, this error message should not be
visible. If it appears, subscribe to the mailing list (see
above), and describe your problem by sending email to
list@maradns.org. Be sure to include the following
information:
* The contents of your /etc/mararc file
* The contents of any files in /etc/maradns
* The full output MaraDNS generates
11. I am trying to register a domain under the .au or the .de
name space, and my registrar is not taking my domain name
Both the German registrar and the Australian registrars
require a RR_ANY request to return NS and SOA records.
MaraDNS can do this if you add the following line to your
mararc file:
default_rrany_set = 15
12. After I start MaraDNS, I can not see the process when I
run netstat -na
Udp services do not have a prominent "LISTEN" when netstat
is run. When MaraDNS is up, the relevant line in the
netstat output looks like this: udp 0 0 127.0.0.4:53
0.0.0.0:*
While on the topic of netstat, if you run netstat -nap as
root, you can see the names of the processes which are
providing internet services.
13. What string library does MaraDNS use?
MaraDNS uses her 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
14. Why is MaraDNS public domain instead of BSD or GPL
licensed?
The post-1.0.xx releases of MaraDNS are, in fact, under a
simple BSD license (without any "obnoxious" advertising
clause).
I used a public domain (non-)license so that MaraDNS could
be integrated with Python without trouble. While Python
is, I believe, currently GPL compatible, Python was not
GPL-compatible at the time I decided on a license for
MaraDNS.
15. Why does MaraDNS use a multi-threaded model?
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.
16. I feel that XXX feature should be added to MaraDNS
Before sending mail to the list with a feature request,
please read the UNIMPLEMENTED FEATURES section of the
MaraDNS man page, which has a list of feature requests
other people have already sent me. If you do not see your
requested feature in this section of the man page, send an
email to the mailing list so that I can add your feature
request to the UNIMPLEMENTED FEATURES section of the
MaraDNS man page.
Feature requests which include a patch which implements
the feature in question are may even be implemented by
MaraDNS, as long as the patch comes with a declaration
that the patch is public domain.
Note that MaraDNS is currently "frozen". In other words,
new features will not be added until after the 1.0
release.
17. I feel that MaraDNS should use another documentation
format
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.
The documentation format is essentially simplified HTML
with some special tags added to meet MaraDNS' special
needs.
For people who prefer other formats of documentation, I am
open to making filters which convert from MaraDNS' own
"EJ" documentation format to the format in question after
MaraDNS 1.0 is released.
Having a given program have its own documentation format
is not without precedent; Perl uses its own "pod"
documentation format.
18. Is there any process I need to follow to add a patch to
MaraDNS?
Yes.
Here is the procedure for making a proper patch:
* Enter the directory that the file is in, for example
maradns-0.9.20/server
* Copy over the file that you wish to modify to another
file name. For example: cp MaraDNS.c MaraDNS.c.orig
* Edit the file in question, e.g: vi MaraDNS.c
* After editing, do something like this:
diff -u MaraDNS.c.orig MaraDNS.c > maradns.patch
* Make sure the modified version compiles cleanly
Send a patch to me in email, along with a statement that
you place the contents of the patch in to the public
domain. If I find that the patch works well, I will
integrate it in to MaraDNS.
19. Can MaraDNS act as a primary nameserver?
Yes.
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.
20. Can MaraDNS act as a secondary nameserver?
Yes.
The 'getzone' program obtains zone files from remote DNS
servers, outputting the contents of the zone file in
MaraDNS' "csv1" zone file format. This program can be run
from cron. If one desires more BIND-like functionality,
getzone can be wrapped in a shell script that uses askmara
to look at the SOA record to see if the serial number of
the zone has changed.
I feel that the traditional DNS design of having a single
application both serve DNS records and handle the
maintenance of zone files is not ideal; the best design is
to have a number of simple applications working together.
21. What is the difference between an authoritative and a
recursive DNS server?
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 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.
22. The getzone client isn't allowing me to add certain
hostnames to my zone
For security reasons, MaraDNS' getzone 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: P1.1.1.10.in-
addr.arpa.|86400|dns.example.com.
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.
There are two workarounds for this issue:
* Create a zone file for 1.1.10.in-addr.arpa., and put the
PTR records there.
* Use rcp, rsync, or another method to copy over the zone
files in question.
23. I have having problems transferring zones from MaraDNS'
zone server to a BIND zone transfer client
BIND is rather picky about what kind of data it will
accept from a zone server. Make sure the following is true
with your domain:
* Make sure that the authoritative NS records are at the
top of your zone, immediately after the SOA record
* Make sure that your authoritative NS records are NS
records for your zone
* To work around a known bug in MaraDNS, make sure you
have at least one non-NS record between the
authoritative NS records for your zone and any
delegation NS records that exist in the zone.
Here is an example bad zone file:
Sexample.com.|86400|example.com.|hostmaster@example.com.|1|86400|3600|6048000|86400
Nbad.example.com.|86400|ns1.example.com.
Nbad.example.com.|86400|ns2.example.com.
Nsubdomain.example.com.|86400|ns.subdomain.example.com.
Aexample.com.|12345|10.2.3.4
Here is the same zone file, with corrections:
Sexample.com.|86400|example.com.|hostmaster@example.com.|1|86400|3600|6048000|86400
Nexample.com.|86400|ns1.example.com.
Nexample.com.|86400|ns2.example.com.
Aexample.com.|12345|10.2.3.4
Nsubdomain.example.com.|86400|ns.subdomain.example.com.
24. Is MaraDNS portable?
While I intend to have MaraDNS be a portable DNS server
which will compile on a variety of unices, right now all
of MaraDNS's work development is being done on Linux. In
terms of proprietary OSes, I know that SCO Open Server,
SCO UNIXware and Solaris have issues running a UDP or TCP
server in a chroot() environment. Word is that, with
Solaris and UNIXware, placing /dev/tcp and /dev/udp in the
chroot() jail will allow a server like MaraDNS to
function.
25. How do I compile MaraDNS on OpenBSD?
There are two ways to do this:
To use the native thread support add -pthread to the
CFLAGS variable.
To use the GNU pthread library, install the pth package
and add -L/usr/local/lib/pth to the linker.
(Florin Iucha provided this tip)
26. Can I use MaraDNS in Windows?
Yes.
Provided, of course, that one has the Cygwin environment
which emulates a UNIX environment in Windows.
MaraDNS should now compile fine on Cygwin systems. If not,
join the mailing list and let me know; I will correct this
FAQ entry.
27. MaraDNS freezes up after being used for a while
If using your ISP's 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. If you still see MaraDNS freeze up after making
this correction, please send a bug report to the mailing
list.
28. What kind of Python integration does MaraDNS have
The mararc file uses the same syntax that Python uses; in
fact, Python can parse a properly formatted mararc file.
There is currently no other integration with Python.
29. Doesn't "kvar" mean "four" in Esperanto?
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.
30. How do I make MaraDNS' time stamps human-readable?
MaraDNS uses standard UNIX timestamps; which is the number
of seconds since Midnight, January 1, 1970. To make
MaraDNS' time stamps human readable, use this awk script:
maradns -f /etc/maradns | awk '
/Timestamp/{
gsub(/Timestamp: ([0-9]+)/,
strftime("%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S",$2),$0)}
{print}' >> logfile
The MaraDNS startup script has the option to use this Awk
script to convert the time stamp; read the script for
details.
()
