new¶

    $nameserver = Net::DNS::Nameserver->new(
        LocalAddr       => ['::1', '127.0.0.1'],
        LocalPort       => 15353,
        ZoneFile        => "filename"
        );
    $nameserver = Net::DNS::Nameserver->new(
        LocalAddr       => '10.1.2.3',
        LocalPort       => 15353,
        ReplyHandler    => \&reply_handler,
        Verbose         => 1,
        Truncate        => 0
    );

Instantiates a Net::DNS::Nameserver object. An exception is raised if the object could not be created.

Each instance is configured using the following optional arguments:

    LocalAddr           IP address on which to listen   Defaults to loopback address
    LocalPort           Port on which to listen
    ZoneFile            Name of file containing RRs
                        accessed using the internal
                        reply-handling subroutine
    ReplyHandler        Reference to customised
                        reply-handling subroutine
    NotifyHandler       Reference to reply-handling
                        subroutine for queries with
                        opcode NOTIFY (RFC1996)
    UpdateHandler       Reference to reply-handling
                        subroutine for queries with
                        opcode UPDATE (RFC2136)
    Verbose             Report internal activity        Defaults to 0 (off)
    Truncate            Truncates UDP packets that
                        are too big for the reply       Defaults to 1 (on)

The LocalAddr attribute may alternatively be specified as an array of IP addresses to listen to.

The ReplyHandler subroutine is passed the query name, query class, query type, peerhost, query record, and connection descriptor. It must either return the response code and references to the answer, authority, and additional sections of the response, or undef to leave the query unanswered. Common response codes are:

    NOERROR     No error
    FORMERR     Format error
    SERVFAIL    Server failure
    NXDOMAIN    Non-existent domain (name doesn't exist)
    NOTIMP      Not implemented
    REFUSED     Query refused

For advanced usage it may also contain a headermask containing an hashref with the settings for the "aa", "ra", and "ad" header bits. The argument is of the form: {ad => 1, aa => 0, ra => 1}

EDNS options may be specified in a similar manner using the optionmask: {$optioncode => $value, $optionname => $value}

See RFC1035 and IANA DNS parameters file for more information:

The nameserver will listen for both UDP and TCP connections. On linux and other Unix-like systems, unprivileged users are denied access to ports below 1024.

UDP reply truncation functionality was introduced in Net::DNS 0.66. The size limit is determined by the EDNS0 size advertised in the query, otherwise 512 is used. If you want to do packet truncation yourself you should set Truncate=>0 and truncate the reply packet in the code of the ReplyHandler.

start_server¶

    $ns->start_server( <TIMEOUT_IN_SECONDS> );

Starts a server process for each of the specified UDP and TCP sockets which continuously responds to user connections.

The timeout parameter specifies the time the server is to remain active. If called with no parameter a default timeout of 10 minutes is applied.

stop_server¶

    $ns->stop_server();

Terminates all server processes in an orderly fashion.

Example 1: Test script with embedded nameserver¶

The following example is a self-contained test script which queries DNS zonefile data served by an embedded Net::DNS::Nameserver instance.

    use strict;
    use warnings;
    use Test::More;
    plan skip_all => 'Net::DNS::Nameserver not available'
                unless eval { require Net::DNS::Nameserver }
                and Net::DNS::Nameserver->can('start_server');
    plan tests => 2;
    my $resolver = Net::DNS::Resolver->new(
        nameserver => ['::1', '127.0.0.1'],
        port       => 15353
        );
 
    my $ns = Net::DNS::Nameserver->new(
        LocalAddr => [$resolver->nameserver],
        LocalPort => $resolver->port,
        Verbose   => 0,
        ZoneFile  => \*DATA
        )
                || die "couldn't create nameserver object";
    $ns->start_server(10);
    my $reply = $resolver->send(qw(example.com SOA));
    is( ref($reply), 'Net::DNS::Packet', 'received reply packet' );
    my ($rr) = $reply->answer;
    is( $rr->type, 'SOA', 'answer contains SOA record' );
    $ns->stop_server();
    exit;
    __DATA__
    $ORIGIN example.com.
    @   IN SOA  mname rname 2023 2h 1h 2w 1h
    www IN A    93.184.216.34

Example 2: Free-standing customised DNS nameserver¶

The following example will listen on port 15353 and respond to all queries for A records with the IP address 10.1.2.3. All other queries will be answered with NXDOMAIN. Authority and additional sections are left empty. The $peerhost variable catches the IP address of the peer host, so that additional filtering on a per-host basis may be applied.

    use strict;
    use warnings;
    use Net::DNS::Nameserver;
    sub reply_handler {
        my ( $qname, $qclass, $qtype, $peerhost, $query, $conn ) = @_;
        my ( $rcode, @ans, @auth, @add );
        print "Received query from $peerhost to " . $conn->{sockhost} . "\n";
        $query->print;
        if ( $qtype eq "A" && $qname eq "foo.example.com" ) {
                my ( $ttl, $rdata ) = ( 3600, "10.1.2.3" );
                my $rr = Net::DNS::RR->new("$qname $ttl $qclass $qtype $rdata");
                push @ans, $rr;
                $rcode = "NOERROR";
        } elsif ( $qname eq "foo.example.com" ) {
                $rcode = "NOERROR";
        } else {
                $rcode = "NXDOMAIN";
        }
        # mark the answer as authoritative (by setting the 'aa' flag)
        my $headermask = {aa => 1};
        # specify EDNS options  { option => value }
        my $optionmask = {};
        return ( $rcode, \@ans, \@auth, \@add, $headermask, $optionmask );
    }
    my $ns = Net::DNS::Nameserver->new(
        LocalPort    => 15353,
        ReplyHandler => \&reply_handler,
        Verbose      => 1
        ) or die "couldn't create nameserver object";
    $ns->start_server(60);
    exit;       # leaving nameserver processes running