MaraDNS
A security-aware DNS server

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# FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

### This FAQ is for version 1.0 of MaraDNS. An updated FAQ for version 1.2 of MaraDNS is available here

## 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?

> 31. How scalable is MaraDNS?

> 32. I'm getting a warning about dangling CNAME entries

## 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.`

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.

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't 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.

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 loookups for those IPs requires ISP intervention.

## 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 (with a linefeed added to the SOA line):

    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 (and a linefeed added to the SOA line):

    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.

## 31. How scalable is MaraDNS?

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.

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:

    Startup time				N
    Memory usage				N
    Processing incoming DNS requests	1

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.

## I'm getting a warning about dangling CNAME entries

Let us suppose we have a CNAME record without an A record in the local DNS server's database, such as:

    	Cgoogle.example.com.|86400|www.google.com.

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:

    	Cgoogle.example.com.|86400|www.google.com.
    	Awww.google.com.|900|66.102.7.104

For security reasons, MaraDNS doesn't do this. Instead, MaraDNS will simply output:

    	Cgoogle.example.com.|86400|www.google.com.

Some stub resolvers will be unable to resolve google.example.com as a consequence.

If you want to remove these warnings, add the following to your mararc file:

    	no_cname_warnings = 1

Information about how to get MaraDNS to resolve dangling CNAME records is in the tutorial file dangling.html