[Dnsmasq-discuss] using only DHCP and propagating upstream nameservers

[Simon Kelley]

On 16/02/13 12:03, Chris Wilson wrote:
> Hi Ondrej,
>
> On Sat, 16 Feb 2013, Ondřej Grover wrote:
>
>> Thank you, this would solve my problem if the nameservers listed in
>> /etc/resolv.conf on the server didn't change, but they do (the server
>> is more like a router, acquires IP and dns info from my ISP via DHCP).
>>
>> As dnsmasq is able to read /etc/resolv.conf on the server, I was
>> hoping there would be a way for dnsmasq to propagate the nameservers
>> listed there automagicaly to its clients.
>
> If the DNS servers listed there change, there's no way to inform the
> DHCP clients of that. If they continue to use the old servers and those
> servers stop working, the clients will fail.
>
> Just use dnsmasq to proxy to the DNS servers already. dnsmasq will
> automatically start forwarding queries to new servers when the list
> changes. And it will cache queries for you, so it will be faster.
>
>

I'd echo Chris's observation here: dnsmasq's orignal raison d'etre was 
to allow the upstream nameserver to change without needing to undergo 
the problematic process of propogating that to all the clients on the 
local network.

It probably makes sense that dnsmasq-dhcp should not advertise itself by 
default as the DNS server of the dnsmasq-dns is disabled with port=0, 
(or port= anything other than 53, for that matter.)

Cheers,

Simon.