Allow dnsmasq to use /etc/hosts

[Thiudans]

Greetings!

I would like to use my /etc/hosts file to force name resolution to certain hosts. But when I look at how dnsmasq is set up I see that it has a parameter set to ignore the /etc/hosts file via the "--no-hosts" switch:

/usr/sbin/dnsmasq --no-resolv --keep-in-foreground --no-hosts --bind-interfaces --pid-file=/var/run/sendsigs.omit.d/network-manager.dnsmasq.pid --listen-address=127.0.0.1 --conf-file=/var/run/nm-dns-dnsmasq.conf --cache-size=0 --proxy-dnssec

Where is this parameter set so I can disable it? I think this would allow me to use the /etc/hosts file for name resolutions.

Any thoughts?

[SecretCode]

Is this a server? dnsmasq isn't running on my desktop installation and afaik it shouldn't.

All I can suggest is running a grep -r for it in your /etc directory to find the script that invokes it ...

Or a find /etc -name '*dnsmasq*' to look for config files.

[Thiudans]

My machine is a workstation running on a laptop. I think dnsmasq is on by default.

The grep -r is talong a long time. :-)

[oshunluvr]

Look here yet?

--conf-file=/var/run/nm-dns-dnsmasq.conf

[SecretCode]

Is your laptop providing dns or dhcp services to other machines?

If you don't need to do that, and only need to control name resolution for processes on your own machine, I'm not sure dnsmasq is what you want. But if it is, do you have

nameserver 127.0.0.1

in /etc/resolv.conf?

[SecretCode]

The grep -r is talong a long time. :-)

$ time grep -r dnsmasq /etc
/etc/insserv.conf:$named                +named +dnsmasq +lwresd +bind9 +unbound $network
grep -r dnsmasq /etc  0.12s user 0.35s system 3% cpu 13.031 total

[kubicle]

Unfortunately, the --no-hosts option is hard-coded to NetworkManager's dnsmasq plugin (which I personally think is borderline idiotic).

1. You can disable the nm dnsmasq plugin by commenting out the dns=dnsmasq line in /etc/NetworkManager/Networkmanager.conf file (and restarting NetworkManager afterwards)

2. If you would like to continue using dnsmasq without the no-hosts option, you can wrap dnsmasq binary into a shell script that calls it with the options you choose...or install and use the regular 'dnsmasq' which you can configure to your liking (the latter requires you to also disable the networkmanager plugin as per step one)

Some links:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...er/+bug/993298
http://askubuntu.com/questions/11789...etc-hosts-file

[Thiudans]

Yes, it has a list of DNS servers from my DHCP servers.

[Thiudans]

kubicle,

"Unfortunately, the --no-hosts option is hard-coded to NetworkManager's dnsmasq plugin (which I personally think is borderline idiotic)."

Why? I agree this is idiotic.

I think I will take option 2.

Finally, are all those options for dnsmasq hard coded for the plugin? If not, there is an easier workarount with the --addn-hosts switch.

[kubicle]

Why? I agree this is idiotic.

Well there is a reasoning behind the no-hosts option (though it doesn't seem to be working as expected...judging by your experiences, I don't use the plugin myself)...see the commit (https://mail.gnome.org/archives/netw.../msg00179.html) for the reasoning. Still...using hard-coded options makes no sense to me in general.

Finally, are all those options for dnsmasq hard coded for the plugin? If not, there is an easier workarount with the --addn-hosts switch.

I didn't check the full source, so I'm not sure...but I'd expect they are.

[Thiudans]

Ha!

nsswitch.conf, located at /etc/nsswitch.conf had no entry for dns--I added it and now I can resolve names with /etc/hosts !

Thanks kubicle--I found it from the link you provided.

[kubicle]

nsswitch.conf, located at /etc/nsswitch.conf had no entry for dns--I added it and now I can resolve names with /etc/hosts !

Is your 12.04 a fresh installation, or an upgraded one?
I think the default nsswitch.conf in precise should have:

hosts:          files dns

(which should mean that [files] /etc/hosts is checked before dns resolving)

[Snowhog]

On my 12.04, this is the content of /etc/nsswitch.conf

# /etc/nsswitch.conf#
# Example configuration of GNU Name Service Switch functionality.
# If you have the `glibc-doc-reference' and `info' packages installed, try:
# `info libc "Name Service Switch"' for information about this file.

passwd:         compat
group:          compat
shadow:         compat

hosts:          files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4
networks:       files

protocols:      db files
services:       db files
ethers:         db files
rpc:            db files

netgroup:       nis

[kubicle]

On my 12.04, this is the content of /etc/nsswitch.conf

hosts:          files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4

The mdns4 entries probably depend on whether you have avahi-daemon (+ libnss-mdns) installed or not (they are installed by default).

[Thiudans]

Mine is a fresh install. I fiddlw lot, so something may have changed it. The way it works is that the resources for the DB are read in order from left to right. So in my case, there was no DNS entry. That means that unless the application calls DNS, there would be no name resolution. Here is mine:

# /etc/nsswitch.conf
#
# Example configuration of GNU Name Service Switch functionality.
# If you have the `glibc-doc-reference' and `info' packages installed, try:
# `info libc "Name Service Switch"' for information about this file.

passwd:         compat
group:          compat
shadow:         compat

hosts:          files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4
networks:       files

protocols:      db files
services:       db files
ethers:         db files
rpc:            db files

As you can see, files is first, so it will use the hosts file to resolve.