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<h1>MaraDNS 1.0: Do not use</h1>
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This page used to contain a FAQ for version 1.0 of MaraDNS. This
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release is no longer maintained and has known security problems.
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Please update to version 1.4 (or 2.0 if feasible); a guide for
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updating MaraDNS is available <A href=/tutorial/update.html>here</A>.
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<h1>FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS</h1>
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<h3>This FAQ is for version 1.0 of MaraDNS. An updated FAQ for version
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1.2 of MaraDNS is available <A href="http://www.maradns.org/faq.html">here</A>
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1. <A href="#tryout">How to I try out MaraDNS?</A> <P>
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2. <A href="#license">What license is MaraDNS released under?</A><P>
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3. <A href="#ips">How do I get MaraDNS to bind to multiple IP addresses?</A><P>
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4. <A href="#ipsbug">How come BIND 9 can not process MaraDNS queries when
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MaraDNS is bound to multiple IP addresses?</A><P>
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5. <A href="#bugzilla">How do I report bugs in MaraDNS?</A><P>
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6. <A href="#chatter">Some of the postings to the mailing list do not talk
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7. <A href="#unsub">How to I get off the mailing list?</A><P>
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8. <A href="#rdns">How do I set up reverse DNS on MaraDNS?</A><P>
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9. <A href="#timeout">I am on a slow network, and MaraDNS can not process
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recursive queries</A><P>
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10. <A href="#obtuse">When I try to run MaraDNS, I get a
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<tt>Fatal error: Error running populate_main program</tt>
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or a <tt>Fatal error: init_cache() failed</tt>
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11. <A href="#rrany">I am trying to register a domain under the .au or
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the .de name space,and my registrar is not taking my domain name</A><P>
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12. <A href="#netstat">After I start MaraDNS, I can not see the process
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when I run netstat -na</A><P>
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13. <A href="#jsstr">What string library does MaraDNS use?</A><P>
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14. <A href="#license">Why is MaraDNS public domain instead of BSD or GPL
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15. <A href="#whythreads">Why does MaraDNS use a multi-threaded model?</A><P>
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16. <A href="#wishlist">I feel that XXX feature should be added to MaraDNS</A><P>
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17. <A href="#docbook">I feel that MaraDNS should use another documentation
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18. <A href="#patch">Is there any process I need to follow to add a patch
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19. <A href="#primary">Can MaraDNS act as a primary nameserver?</A><P>
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20. <A href="#secondary">Can MaraDNS act as a secondary nameserver?</A><P>
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21. <A href="#auth">What is the difference between an authoritative and
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a recursive DNS server?</A><P>
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22. <A href="#bailiwick">The getzone client isn't allowing me to add certain
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hostnames to my zone</A><P>
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23. <A href="#kosherzone">I have having problems transferring zones from
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MaraDNS' zone server to a BIND zone transfer client</A><P>
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24. <A href="#portable">Is MaraDNS portable?</A><P>
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25. <A href="#openbsd">How do I compile MaraDNS on OpenBSD?</A><P>
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26. <A href="#cygwin">Can I use MaraDNS in Windows?</A><P>
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27. <A href="#upstream">MaraDNS freezes up after being used for a while</A><P>
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28. <A href="#python">What kind of Python integration does MaraDNS have</A><P>
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29. <A href="#kvar">Doesn't "kvar" mean "four" in Esperanto?</A><p>
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30. <A href="#timestamp">How do I make MaraDNS' time stamps
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human-readable?</A><p>
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31. <A href="#scability">How scalable is MaraDNS?</A><p>
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32. <A href="#dcname">I'm getting a warning about dangling CNAME entries</A><p>
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<a name="tryout"> </a>
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<H2>1. How to I try out MaraDNS?</H2>
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<p>Read the <A href="quickstart.html">quick start guide</A>, which
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is the file named 0QuickStart in the MaraDNS distribution.
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<a name="license"> </a>
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<H2>2. What license is MaraDNS released under?</H2>
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<p>None, actually. MaraDNS is released to the public domain.
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<H2>3. How do I get MaraDNS to bind to multiple IP addresses?</H2>
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The current method is to run multiple copies of MaraDNS, each using its
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maradns -f /etc/mararc.1
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maradns -f /etc/mararc.2
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If you just want to bind to all IP addresses your computer has, bind to
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the IP "0.0.0.0"; however this can cause problems. See the next
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I don't think this will be too hard to correctly implement, since I
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already have code for specifying multiple IP addresses with the IP ACL
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code used by the zone server. Until then, I will add this workaround to
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<a name="ipsbug"> </a>
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<H2>4. How come BIND 9 can not process MaraDNS queries when MaraDNS is bound
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to multiple IP addresses?</H2>
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In certain cricumstances, when MaraDNS is bound to more than one IP
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address, the underlying OS will send the UDP reply with a different IP
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than the IP the UDP query was sent to. This will confuse BIND 9, since
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BIND 9's method for listening for requests that BIND has sent out expects
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the reply to come from the same IP that the request was sent to.
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<a name="bugzilla"> </a>
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<H2>5. How do I report bugs in MaraDNS?</H2>
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Before reporting a bug that MaraDNS has, please read the relevant man
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pages. The man pages should be installed when one installs MaraDNS, and,
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in addition, are available in the <tt>doc/man</tt> directory of the
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MaraDNS source tarball. (It is also possible that you are reading the man
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Some MaraDNS man pages (namely, the man pages for <B>maradns</B>,
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<B>askmara</B>, <B>zoneserver</B>, and <B>mararc</B>) have a section,
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titled "BUGS", which list already known bugs which I feel are not
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important enough to fix before the 1.0 release of MaraDNS. Bug reports
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which mention one of these bugs will be cheerfully ignored (or given a
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polite "thanks for the report, in this man page the bug is already
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mentioned" message if I am in a particularly good mood).
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Subscribe to the mailing list by sending mail to
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<A href="mailto:list-subscribe@maradns.org">list-subscribe@maradns.org</A>
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with "subscribe" as the subject line,
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and describe the bug by sending email to
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<A href="mailto:list@maradns.org">list@maradns.org</A>.
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<a name="chatter"> </a>
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<H2>6. Some of the postings to the mailing list do not talk about MaraDNS!</H2>
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In cases where I post something to the mailing list which does not directly
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talk about MaraDNS, the subject line will not have [MARA] in it, but will
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have some form of the word CHATTER in it.
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This way, people who do not like this can set up mail filters to filter out
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anything that comes from this list and doesn't have [MARA] in the subject
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line, or simply unsubscribe from the list and read the list from the
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archives; if one needs to report a bug, they can subscribe to the list
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again, post their bug, then unsubscribe after a week.
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Another option is to set up one's Freshmeat preferences to be notified
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in email every time I update MaraDNS at Freshmeat. This will give one
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email notice of any critical bug fixes without needing to be
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subscribed to the mailing list.
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The web page <A href="http://www.maradns.org">http://www.maradns.org/</A>
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has a link to the mailing list archives.
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<a name="unsub"> </a>
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<H2>7. How to I get off the mailing list?</H2>
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Send an email to list-request@maradns.org with "unsubscribe" as the
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<H2>8. How do I set up reverse DNS on MaraDNS?</H2>
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By using PTR (pointer) records. For example, the PTR record which performs
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the reverse DNS lookup for the ip 1.2.3.4 looks like this in a CSV1 zone
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P4.3.2.1.in-addr.arpa.|86400|www.example.com.
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If you wish to have a PTR (reverse DNS lookup; getting a DNS name from a
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numeric IP) record work on the internet at large, it is not a simple
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matter of just adding a record like this to a MaraDNS zonefile. One also
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needs control of the appropriate in-addr.arpa. domain.
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While it can make logical sense to contact the IP 10.11.12.13 when trying
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to get the reverse DNS lookup (fully qualified domain name) for a given
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IP, DNS servers don't do this. DNS server, instead, contact the root
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DNS servers for a given in-addr.arpa name to get the reverse DNS lookup,
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just like they do with any other record type.
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When an internet service provider is given a block of IPs, they are also
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given control of the DNS zones which allow them to control reverse DNS
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lookups for those IPs. While it is possible to obtain a domain and run
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a DNS server without the knowledge or intervention of an ISP, being
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able to control reverse DNS loookups for those IPs requires ISP
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<a name="timeout"> </a>
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<H2>9. I am on a slow network, and MaraDNS can not process recursive
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MaraDNS, by default, only waits two seconds for a reply from a remote
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DNS server. This default can be increased by adding a line like this
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Note that making this too high will slow MaraDNS down when DNS servers
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are down, which is, alas, all too common on today's internet.
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<a name="obtuse"> </a>
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<H2>10. When I try to run MaraDNS, I get a
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<tt>Fatal error: Error running populate_main program</tt>
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or a <tt>Fatal error: init_cache() failed</tt> error message.</H2>
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<p>If a line in a mararc file is too long, you will see, before the
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"Fatal error: Error running populate_main program" message, a message
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showing you the line number which is too long and the filename with
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the offending line. While it is possible to increase this limit
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by changing the appropriate variable in the MaraDns.h file, the
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current limit is in line with the 512-byte limit that UDP DNS
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packets have; MaraDNS does not currently support DNS over TCP.
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<p>Otherwise, this error message should not be visible. If it appears,
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the mailing list (see above), and describe your problem by sending email to
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<A href="mailto:list@maradns.org">list@maradns.org</A>. Be sure to include
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the following information:
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<ul><li>The contents of your /etc/mararc file
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<li>The contents of any files in /etc/maradns
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<li>The full output MaraDNS generates
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<a name="rrany"> </a>
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<H2>11. I am trying to register a domain under the .au or the .de name space,
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and my registrar is not taking my domain name</H2>
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<p>Both the German registrar and the Australian registrars require a RR_ANY
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request to return NS and SOA records. MaraDNS can do this if you add the
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following line to your mararc file:<p>
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<tt>default_rrany_set = 15</tt>
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<a name="netstat"> </a>
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<H2>12. After I start MaraDNS, I can not see the process when I run netstat -na
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Udp services do not have a prominent "LISTEN" when netstat is run.
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When MaraDNS is up, the relevant line in the netstat output looks
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udp 0 0 127.0.0.4:53 0.0.0.0:*
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While on the topic of netstat, if you run <TT>netstat -nap</TT> as root,
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you can see the names of the processes which are providing internet
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<a name="jsstr"> </a>
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<H2>13. What string library does MaraDNS use?</H2>
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<p>MaraDNS uses her own string library, which is called the "js_string"
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library. Man pages for most of the functions in the js_string library
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are in the folder <tt>doc/man</tt> of the <A href="download.html">MaraDNS
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<a name="license"> </a>
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<H2>14. Why is MaraDNS public domain instead of BSD or GPL licensed?</H2>
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<p>The post-1.0.xx releases of MaraDNS are, in fact, under a simple
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BSD license (without any "obnoxious" advertising clause).
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<p>I used a public domain (non-)license so that MaraDNS could be integrated
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with Python without trouble. While
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Python is, I believe, currently GPL compatible, Python was not
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GPL-compatible at the time I decided on a license for MaraDNS.
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<a name="thythreads"> </a>
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<H2>15. Why does MaraDNS use a multi-threaded model?</H2>
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<p>The multi-threaded model is, plain and simple, the simplest way to write
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a functioning recursive DNS server. There is a reason why MaraDNS, pdnsd, and
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BIND 9 all use the multi-threaded model.
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<a name="wishlist"> </a>
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<H2>16. I feel that XXX feature should be added to MaraDNS</H2>
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Before sending mail to the list with a feature request, please read
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the UNIMPLEMENTED FEATURES section of the MaraDNS man page, which has a
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list of feature requests other people have already sent me. If you do not
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see your requested feature in this section of the man page, send an email to
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the mailing list so that I can add your feature request to the
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UNIMPLEMENTED FEATURES section of the MaraDNS man page.
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Feature requests which include a patch which implements the feature in
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question are may even be implemented by MaraDNS, as long as the patch comes
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with a declaration that the patch is public domain.
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Note that MaraDNS is currently "frozen". In other words, new features will
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not be added until after the 1.0 release.
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<a name="docbook"> </a>
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<H2>17. I feel that MaraDNS should use another documentation format</H2>
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The reason that MaraDNS uses its own documentation format is to satisfy both
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the needs of translators to have a unified document format and my own
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need to use a documentation format that is simple enough to be readily
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understood and which I can add features on an
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The documentation format is essentially simplified HTML with some
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special tags added to meet MaraDNS' special needs.
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For people who prefer other formats of documentation, I am open to
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making filters which convert from MaraDNS' own "EJ" documentation format
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to the format in question after MaraDNS 1.0 is released.
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Having a given program have its own documentation format is not
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without precedent; Perl uses its own "pod" documentation format.
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<a name="patch"> </a>
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<H2>18. Is there any process I need to follow to add a patch to MaraDNS?</H2>
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<p>Here is the procedure for making a proper patch:
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<li>Enter the directory that the file is in, for example
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<tt>maradns-0.9.20/server</tt>
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<li>Copy over the file that you wish to modify to another file
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name. For example: <tt>cp MaraDNS.c MaraDNS.c.orig</tt>
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<li>Edit the file in question, e.g: <tt>vi MaraDNS.c</tt>
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<li>After editing, do something like this: <br><tt>
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diff -u MaraDNS.c.orig MaraDNS.c > maradns.patch</tt>
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<li>Make sure the modified version compiles cleanly
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Send a patch to me in email, along with a statement that you place
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the contents of the patch in to the public domain. If I find that the patch
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works well, I will integrate it in to MaraDNS.
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<a name="primary"> </a>
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<H2>19. Can MaraDNS act as a primary nameserver?</H2>
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<p>The <tt>zoneserver</tt> program serves zones so that other DNS servers
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can be secondaries for zones which MaraDNS serves. This is a separate
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program from the <tt>maradns</tt> server, which processes both
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authoritative and recursive UDP DNS queries.
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<a name="secondary"> </a>
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<H2>20. Can MaraDNS act as a secondary nameserver?</H2>
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<p>The 'getzone' program obtains zone files from remote DNS servers,
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outputting the contents of the zone file in MaraDNS' "csv1" zone
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file format. This program can be run from cron. If one desires
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more BIND-like functionality, getzone can be wrapped in a
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shell script that uses askmara to look at the SOA record to see if
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the serial number of the zone has changed.
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<p>I feel that the traditional DNS design of having a single application
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both serve DNS records and handle the maintenance of zone files is
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not ideal; the best design is to have a number of simple applications
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<H2>21. What is the difference between an authoritative and a recursive DNS
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A recursive DNS server is a DNS server that is able to contact other DNS
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servers in order to resolve a given domain name label. This is the kind
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of DNS server one points to in /etc/resolve.conf
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An authoritative DNS server is a DNS server that a recursive server
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contacts in order to find out the answer to a given DNS query.
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<a name="bailiwick"> </a>
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<H2>22. The getzone client isn't allowing me to add certain hostnames to
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For security reasons, MaraDNS' getzone client does not
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add records which are not part of the zone in question. For example,
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if someone has a zone for example.com, and this record in the zone:
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P1.1.1.10.in-addr.arpa.|86400|dns.example.com.
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MaraDNS will not add the record, since the record is out-of-bailiwick. In
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other words, it is a host name that does not end in .example.com.
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There are two workarounds for this issue:
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<LI>Create a zone file for 1.1.10.in-addr.arpa., and put the PTR records
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<LI>Use rcp, rsync, or another method to copy over the zone files in
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<a name="kosherzone"> </a>
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<H2>23. I have having problems transferring zones from MaraDNS' zone server
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to a BIND zone transfer client</H2>
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<p>BIND is rather picky about what kind of data it will accept from
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a zone server. Make sure the following is true with your domain:
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<li>Make sure that the authoritative NS records are at the top of your
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zone, immediately after the SOA record
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<li>Make sure that your authoritative NS records are NS records
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<li>To work around <A href="quirks.html">a known bug in MaraDNS</a>, make
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sure you have at least one non-NS record between the authoritative NS
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records for your zone and any delegation NS records that exist in the
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Here is an example bad zone file (with a linefeed added to the SOA
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Sexample.com.|86400|example.com.|
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hostmaster@example.com.|1|86400|3600|6048000|86400
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Nbad.example.com.|86400|ns1.example.com.
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Nbad.example.com.|86400|ns2.example.com.
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Nsubdomain.example.com.|86400|ns.subdomain.example.com.
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Aexample.com.|12345|10.2.3.4
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Here is the same zone file, with corrections (and a linefeed added to the
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Sexample.com.|86400|example.com.|
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hostmaster@example.com.|1|86400|3600|6048000|86400
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Nexample.com.|86400|ns1.example.com.
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Nexample.com.|86400|ns2.example.com.
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Aexample.com.|12345|10.2.3.4
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Nsubdomain.example.com.|86400|ns.subdomain.example.com.
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<a name="portable"> </a>
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<H2>24. Is MaraDNS portable?</H2>
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<p>While I intend to have MaraDNS be a portable DNS server which will
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compile on a variety of unices, right now all of MaraDNS's work development
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is being done on Linux.
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In terms of proprietary OSes, I know that SCO Open Server,
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SCO UNIXware and <A href="solaris.html">Solaris</A> have issues running a
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UDP or TCP server in a chroot() environment. Word is that, with
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Solaris and UNIXware, placing /dev/tcp and /dev/udp in the chroot() jail
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will allow a server like MaraDNS to function.
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<a name="openbsd"> </a>
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<H2>25. How do I compile MaraDNS on OpenBSD?</H2>
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There are two ways to do this:
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To use the native thread support add -pthread to the CFLAGS variable.
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To use the GNU pthread library, install the pth package and add
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-L/usr/local/lib/pth to the linker.
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(Florin Iucha provided this tip)
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<a name="cygwin"> </a>
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<H2>26. Can I use MaraDNS in Windows?</H2>
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Provided, of course, that one has the Cygwin environment which emulates
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a UNIX environment in Windows.
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MaraDNS should now compile fine on Cygwin systems. If not, join the mailing
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list and let me know; I will correct this FAQ entry.
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<a name="upstream"> </a>
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<H2>27. MaraDNS freezes up after being used for a while</H2>
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If using your ISP's name servers or some other name servers which
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are not, in fact, root name servers, please make sure that you are
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using the upstream_servers dictionary variable instead of the
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root_servers dictionary variable.
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If you still see MaraDNS freeze up after making this correction, please
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send a bug report to the mailing list.
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<a name="python"> </a>
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<H2>28. What kind of Python integration does MaraDNS have</H2>
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The mararc file uses the same syntax that Python uses; in fact, Python
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can parse a properly formatted mararc file.
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There is currently no other integration with Python.
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<H2>29. Doesn't "kvar" mean "four" in Esperanto?</H2>
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Indeed, it does. However the use of "kvar" in the MaraDNS source
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code only coincidentally is an Esperanto word. "kvar" is short
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for "Kiwi variable"; a lot of the parsing code comes from the code
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used in the Kiwi spam filter project.
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<a name="timestamp"> </a>
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<H2>30. How do I make MaraDNS' time stamps human-readable?</H2>
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MaraDNS uses standard UNIX timestamps; which is the number of
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seconds since Midnight, January 1, 1970.
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To make MaraDNS' time stamps human readable, use this awk script:
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maradns -f /etc/maradns | awk '
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gsub(/Timestamp: ([0-9]+)/,
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strftime("%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S",$2),$0)}
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The MaraDNS startup script has the option to use this Awk script
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to convert the time stamp; read the script for details.
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<a name="scability"> </a>
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<H2>31. How scalable is MaraDNS?</H2>
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MaraDNS is optimized for serving a small number of domains as quickly
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as possible. That said, MaraDNS is remarkably efficnent for serving a
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large number of domains, as long as the server MaraDNS is on has the
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memory to fit all of the domains, and as long as the startup time for
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loading a large number of domains can be worked around.
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The "big-O" or "theta" growth rates for various MaraDNS functions
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are as follows, where N is the number of authoritative host names being
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Processing incoming DNS requests 1
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As can be seen, MaraDNS will process 1 or 100000 domains in the same amount
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of time, once the domain names are loaded in to memory.
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<a name="dcname"> </a>
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<H2>I'm getting a warning about dangling CNAME entries</H2>
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Let us suppose we have a CNAME record without an A record in the local
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DNS server's database, such as:
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Cgoogle.example.com.|86400|www.google.com.
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This record, which is a CNAME record for "google.example.com", points
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to "www.google.com". Some DNS servers will recursively look up
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www.google.com, and render the above record like this:
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Cgoogle.example.com.|86400|www.google.com.
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Awww.google.com.|900|66.102.7.104
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For security reasons, MaraDNS doesn't do this. Instead, MaraDNS will simply
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Cgoogle.example.com.|86400|www.google.com.
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Some stub resolvers will be unable to resolve google.example.com as
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If you want to remove these warnings, add the following to your mararc file:
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no_cname_warnings = 1
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Information about how to get MaraDNS to resolve dangling CNAME
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records is in the tutorial file <A
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href="http://www.maradns.org/tutorial/dangling.html">dangling.html</A>
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<H2>32. How much memory does MaraDNS use?</H2> -->
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