[Dnsmasq-discuss] What if external DNS unreachable or timed out

[Nikolay P]

The Dnsmasq home page says:

"The DNS subsystem provides a local DNS server for the network, with forwarding of all query types to upstream recursive DNS servers and cacheing of common record types (A, AAAA, CNAME and PTR, also DNSKEY and DS when DNSSEC is enabled)."

I am wondering what will happen if none of the external DNS servers are reachable or suddenly (for any reason) a DNS query to external servers timed out. Will Dnsmasq reply to the client's request from cache? Assume that this particular query is performed frequently and it should be in Dnsmasq cache.

I am trying to handle a situation when my software sends a DNS query but (very rarely) the reply is being lost and my software runs into timeout.

In attempt to resolve this I want to install Dnsmasq on those computers and run it on 127.0.0.1 so instead of asking external servers my software will be asking a local system.

So, will the Dnsmasq reply to the client's request from cache if none of the external servers replied?

Thank you for your attention.