.SH "NAME" systemd-resolved.service, systemd-resolved - Network
Name Resolution manager
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.PP systemd-resolved.service
.PP /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-resolved
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.PP systemd-resolved is a system service that provides network name
resolution to local applications. It implements a caching and validating
DNS/DNSSEC stub resolver, as well as an LLMNR and MulticastDNS resolver and
responder. Local applications may submit network name resolution requests
via three interfaces:
•The native, fully-featured API
systemd-resolved exposes via D-Bus, see
org.freedesktop.resolve1(5) and
org.freedesktop.LogControl1(5)
for details. Usage of this API is generally recommended to clients as it is
asynchronous and fully featured (for example, properly returns DNSSEC
validation status and interface scope for addresses as necessary for
supporting link-local networking).
•The native API systemd-resolved exposes
via Varlink on the /run/systemd/resolve/io.systemd.Resolve AF_UNIX socket.
This provides similar functionality as the D-Bus interface, but is available
during the entire runtime, without requiring a running D-Bus system bus broker
service.
•The glibc
getaddrinfo(3) API as defined by
RFC3493[1] and its related resolver functions, including
gethostbyname(3). This API is widely supported, including beyond the
Linux platform. In its current form it does not expose DNSSEC validation
status information however, and is synchronous only. This API is backed by the
glibc Name Service Switch (
nss(5)). Usage of the glibc NSS module
nss-resolve(8) is required in order to allow glibc's NSS resolver
functions to resolve hostnames via
systemd-resolved.
•Additionally,
systemd-resolved provides a
local DNS stub listener on the IP addresses 127.0.0.53 and 127.0.0.54 on the
local loopback interface. Programs issuing DNS requests directly, bypassing
any local API may be directed to this stub, in order to connect them to
systemd-resolved. Note however that it is strongly recommended that
local programs use the glibc NSS or bus APIs instead (as described above), as
various network resolution concepts (such as link-local addressing, or LLMNR
Unicode domains) cannot be mapped to the unicast DNS protocol.
The DNS stub resolver on 127.0.0.53 provides the full feature set of the
local resolver, which includes offering LLMNR/MulticastDNS resolution. The
DNS stub resolver on 127.0.0.54 provides a more limited resolver, that
operates in "proxy" mode only, i.e. it will pass most DNS messages
relatively unmodified to the current upstream DNS servers and back, but not
try to process the messages locally, and hence does not validate DNSSEC, or
offer up LLMNR/MulticastDNS. (It will translate to DNS-over-TLS
communication if needed however.)
.PP The DNS servers contacted are determined from the global settings in
/etc/systemd/resolved.conf, the per-link static settings in
/etc/systemd/network/*.network files (in case
systemd-networkd.service(8) is used), the per-link dynamic settings
received over DHCP, information provided via resolvectl(1), and any
DNS server information made available by other system services. See
resolved.conf(5) and systemd.network(5) for details about
systemd's own configuration files for DNS servers. To improve compatibility,
/etc/resolv.conf is read in order to discover configured system DNS servers,
but only if it is not a symlink to /run/systemd/resolve/stub-resolv.conf,
/usr/lib/systemd/resolv.conf or /run/systemd/resolve/resolv.conf (see
below).
.SH "SYNTHETIC RECORDS"
.PP systemd-resolved synthesizes DNS resource records (RRs) for the
following cases:
•The local, configured hostname is resolved to all
locally configured IP addresses ordered by their scope, or — if none
are configured — the IPv4 address 127.0.0.2 (which is on the local
loopback interface) and the IPv6 address ::1 (which is the local host).
•The hostnames localhost and localhost.localdomain
as well as any hostname ending in .localhost or .localhost.localdomain are
resolved to the IP addresses 127.0.0.1 and ::1.
•The hostname _gateway is resolved to all current
default routing gateway addresses, ordered by their metric. This assigns a
stable hostname to the current gateway, useful for referencing it
independently of the current network configuration state.
•The hostname _outbound is resolved to the local
IPv4 and IPv6 addresses that are most likely used for communication with other
hosts. This is the preferred source addresses of default gateways if
specified, or determined by requesting a routing decision to the configured
default gateways from the kernel and then using the local IP addresses
selected by this decision. This hostname is only available if there is at
least one local default gateway configured. This assigns a stable hostname to
the local outbound IP addresses, useful for referencing them independently of
the current network configuration state.
•The hostname _localdnsstub is resolved to the IP
address 127.0.0.53, i.e. the address the local DNS stub (see above) is
listening on.
•The hostname _localdnsproxy is resolved to the IP
address 127.0.0.54, i.e. the address the local DNS proxy (see above) is
listening on.
•The files matching
/etc/systemd/resolve/static.d/*.rr, /run/systemd/resolve/static.d/*.rr,
/usr/local/lib/systemd/resolve/static.d/*.rr,
/usr/lib/systemd/resolve/static.d/*.rr may be used to define arbitrary
records. See
systemd.rr(5) for details. Support for this may be
disabled with
ReadStaticRecords=no, see
resolved.conf(5).
•The mappings defined in /etc/hosts are resolved
to their configured addresses and back, but they will not affect lookups for
non-address types (like MX). Support for /etc/hosts may be disabled with
ReadEtcHosts=no, see
resolved.conf(5).
.SH "PROTOCOLS AND ROUTING"
.PP The lookup requests that systemd-resolved.service receives are routed to
the available DNS servers, LLMNR, and MulticastDNS interfaces according to
the following rules:
•Names for which synthetic records are generated
(the local hostname, localhost and localdomain, local gateway, as listed in
the previous section) and addresses configured in /etc/hosts are never routed
to the network and a reply is sent immediately.
•Single-label names are resolved using LLMNR on
all local interfaces where LLMNR is enabled. Lookups for IPv4 addresses are
only sent via LLMNR on IPv4, and lookups for IPv6 addresses are only sent via
LLMNR on IPv6. Note that lookups for single-label synthesized names are not
routed to LLMNR, MulticastDNS or unicast DNS.
•Queries for the address records (A and AAAA) of
single-label non-synthesized names are resolved via unicast DNS using search
domains. For any interface which defines search domains, such look-ups are
routed to the servers defined for that interface, suffixed with each of those
search domains. When global search domains are defined, such look-ups are
routed to the global servers. For each search domain, queries are performed by
suffixing the name with each of the search domains in turn. Additionally,
lookup of single-label names via unicast DNS may be enabled with the
ResolveUnicastSingleLabel=yes setting. The details of which servers are
queried and how the final reply is chosen are described below. Note that this
means that address queries for single-label names are never sent out to remote
DNS servers by default, and resolution is only possible if search domains are
defined.
•Multi-label names with the domain suffix .local
are resolved using MulticastDNS on all local interfaces where MulticastDNS is
enabled. As with LLMNR, IPv4 address lookups are sent via IPv4 and IPv6
address lookups are sent via IPv6.
•Queries for multi-label names are routed via
unicast DNS on local interfaces that have a DNS server configured, plus the
globally configured DNS servers if there are any. Which interfaces are used is
determined by the routing logic based on search and route-only domains,
described below. Note that by default, lookups for domains with the .local
suffix are not routed to DNS servers, unless the domain is specified
explicitly as routing or search domain for the DNS server and interface. This
means that on networks where the .local domain is defined in a site-specific
DNS server, explicit search or routing domains need to be configured to make
lookups work within this DNS domain. Note that these days, it is generally
recommended to avoid defining .local in a DNS server, as RFC6762[2]
reserves this domain for exclusive MulticastDNS use.
•Address lookups (reverse lookups) are routed
similarly to multi-label names, with the exception that addresses from the
link-local address range are never routed to unicast DNS and are only resolved
using LLMNR and MulticastDNS (when enabled).
.PP If lookups are routed to multiple interfaces, the first successful
response is returned (thus effectively merging the lookup zones on all
matching interfaces). If the lookup failed on all interfaces, the last
failing response is returned.
.PP Routing of lookups is determined by the per-interface routing domains
(search and route-only) and global search domains. See
systemd.network(5) and resolvectl(1) for a description how
those settings are set dynamically and the discussion of Domains= in
resolved.conf(5) for a description of globally configured DNS
settings.
.PP The following query routing logic applies for unicast DNS lookups
initiated by systemd-resolved.service:
•If a name to look up matches (that is: is equal
to or has as suffix) any of the configured routing domains (search or
route-only) of any link, or the globally configured DNS settings, "best
matching" routing domain is determined: the matching one with the most
labels. The query is then sent to all DNS servers of any links or the globally
configured DNS servers associated with this "best matching" routing
domain. (Note that more than one link might have this same "best
matching" routing domain configured, in which case the query is sent to
all of them in parallel).
In case of single-label names, when search domains are defined, the same
logic applies, except that the name is first suffixed by each of the search
domains in turn. Note that this search logic does not apply to any names
with at least one dot. Also see the discussion about compatibility with the
traditional glibc resolver below.
•If a query does not match any configured routing
domain (either per-link or global), it is sent to all DNS servers that are
configured on links configured as the default route, as well as the globally
configured DNS server.
•If there are no DNS servers configured on any
link also configured as the default route and no global DNS server configured,
one of the compiled-in fallback DNS servers is used.
.RE
•Otherwise, the unicast DNS query fails, as no
suitable DNS servers can be determined.
.PP Whether a link is the default route or not can be configured with
resolvectl default-route command or DNSDefaultRoute= setting
in .network files. If not configured explicitly, it is implicitly determined
based on the configured DNS domains for a link: if there's a route-only
domain other than ~., it defaults to false, otherwise to true.
.PP Effectively this means: in order to support single-label non-synthesized
names, define appropriate search domains. In order to preferably route all
DNS queries not explicitly matched by routing domain configuration to a
specific link, configure a ~. route-only domain on it. This will ensure that
other links will not be considered for these queries (unless they too carry
such a routing domain). In order to route all such DNS queries to a specific
link only if no other link is preferred, configure the link as the default
route and do not configure a ~. route-only domain on it. Finally, in order
to avoid a specific link receiving any DNS traffic not matching any of its
configured routing domains, do not make it a default route.
.PP See org.freedesktop.resolve1(5) for information about the D-Bus
APIs systemd-resolved provides.
.SH "COMPATIBILITY WITH THE TRADITIONAL GLIBC STUB RESOLVER"
.PP This section provides a short summary of differences in the resolver
implemented by nss-resolve(8) together with systemd-resolved
and the traditional stub resolver implemented in nss-dns.
•Some names are always resolved internally (see
Synthetic Records above). Traditionally they would be resolved by nss-files if
provided in /etc/hosts. But note that the details of how a query is
constructed are under the control of the client library. nss-dns will first
try to resolve names using search domains and even if those queries are routed
to systemd-resolved, it will send them out over the network using the usual
rules for multi-label name routing [3].
•Single-label names are not resolved for A and
AAAA records using unicast DNS (unless overridden with
ResolveUnicastSingleLabel=, see
resolved.conf(5)). This is
similar to the
no-tld-query option being set in
resolv.conf(5).
•Search domains are not used for suffixing
of multi-label names. (Search domains are nevertheless used for lookup
routing, for names that were originally specified as single-label or
multi-label.) Any name with at least one dot is always interpreted as a FQDN.
nss-dns would resolve names both as relative (using search domains) and
absolute FQDN names. Some names would be resolved as relative first, and after
that query has failed, as absolute, while other names would be resolved in
opposite order. The ndots option in /etc/resolv.conf was used to
control how many dots the name needs to have to be resolved as relative first.
This stub resolver does not implement this at all: multi-label names are only
resolved as FQDNs.[4]
•This resolver has a notion of the special .local
domain used for MulticastDNS, and will not route queries with that suffix to
unicast DNS servers unless explicitly configured, see above. Also, reverse
lookups for link-local addresses are not sent to unicast DNS servers.
•This resolver reads and caches /etc/hosts
internally. (In other words, nss-resolve replaces nss-files in addition to
nss-dns). Entries in /etc/hosts have highest priority.
.RE
•This resolver also implements LLMNR and
MulticastDNS in addition to the classic unicast DNS protocol, and will resolve
single-label names using LLMNR (when enabled) and names ending in .local using
MulticastDNS (when enabled).
•Environment variables $LOCALDOMAIN and
$RES_OPTIONS described in resolv.conf(5) are not supported
currently.
•The nss-dns resolver maintains little state
between subsequent DNS queries, and for each query always talks to the first
listed DNS server from /etc/resolv.conf first, and on failure continues with
the next until reaching the end of the list which is when the query fails. The
resolver in systemd-resolved however maintains state, and will
continuously talk to the same server for all queries in a particular lookup
scope until some form of error is seen at which point it will switch to the
next server, and then stay with it for all queries on the scope until the next
failure, and so on, eventually returning to the first configured server. This
is done to optimize lookup times, in particular given that the resolver
typically must first probe server feature sets when talking to a server, which
takes time. This different behaviour implies that listed DNS servers per
lookup scope must be equivalent in the zones they serve, so that sending a
query to one of them will yield the same results as sending it to another
configured DNS server.
.SH "/ETC/RESOLV.CONF"
.PP Four modes of handling /etc/resolv.conf (see resolv.conf(5)) are
supported:
•systemd-resolved maintains the
/run/systemd/resolve/stub-resolv.conf file for compatibility with traditional
Linux programs. This file lists the 127.0.0.53 DNS stub (see above) as the
only DNS server. It also contains a list of search domains that are in use by
systemd-resolved. The list of search domains is always kept up-to-date.
Note that /run/systemd/resolve/stub-resolv.conf should not be used directly by
applications, but only through a symlink from /etc/resolv.conf. This file may
be symlinked from /etc/resolv.conf in order to connect all local clients that
bypass local DNS APIs to systemd-resolved with correct search domains
settings. This mode of operation is recommended.
•A static file /usr/lib/systemd/resolv.conf is
provided that lists the 127.0.0.53 DNS stub (see above) as only DNS server.
This file may be symlinked from /etc/resolv.conf in order to connect all local
clients that bypass local DNS APIs to systemd-resolved. This file does
not contain any search domains.
•systemd-resolved maintains the
/run/systemd/resolve/resolv.conf file for compatibility with traditional Linux
programs. This file may be symlinked from /etc/resolv.conf and is always kept
up-to-date, containing information about all known DNS servers. Note the file
format's limitations: it does not know a concept of per-interface DNS servers
and hence only contains system-wide DNS server definitions. Note that
/run/systemd/resolve/resolv.conf should not be used directly by applications,
but only through a symlink from /etc/resolv.conf. If this mode of operation is
used local clients that bypass any local DNS API will also bypass
systemd-resolved and will talk directly to the known DNS servers.
•Alternatively, /etc/resolv.conf may be managed by
other packages, in which case systemd-resolved will read it for DNS
configuration data. In this mode of operation systemd-resolved is
consumer rather than provider of this configuration file.
.PP Note that the selected mode of operation for this file is detected fully
automatically, depending on whether /etc/resolv.conf is a symlink to
/run/systemd/resolve/resolv.conf or lists 127.0.0.53 as DNS server.
.SH "SIGNALS"
.PP SIGUSR1
Upon reception of the SIGUSR1 process signal systemd-resolved
will dump the contents of all DNS resource record caches it maintains, as
well as all feature level information it learnt about configured DNS servers
into the system logs.
Added in version 231.
.RE
.PP SIGUSR2
Upon reception of the SIGUSR2 process signal systemd-resolved
will flush all caches it maintains. Note that it should normally not be
necessary to request this explicitly – except for debugging purposes
– as systemd-resolved flushes the caches automatically anyway
any time the host's network configuration changes. Sending this signal to
systemd-resolved is equivalent to the resolvectl flush-caches
command, however the latter is recommended since it operates in a
synchronous way.
Added in version 231.
.RE
.PP SIGRTMIN+1
Upon reception of the SIGRTMIN+1 process signal
systemd-resolved will forget everything it learnt about the
configured DNS servers. Specifically any information about server feature
support is flushed out, and the server feature probing logic is restarted on
the next request, starting with the most fully featured level. Note that it
should normally not be necessary to request this explicitly – except
for debugging purposes – as systemd-resolved automatically
forgets learnt information any time the DNS server configuration changes.
Sending this signal to systemd-resolved is equivalent to the
resolvectl reset-server-features command, however the latter is
recommended since it operates in a synchronous way.
Added in version 235.
.RE
.PP SIGHUP
Upon reception of the SIGHUP process signal systemd-resolved
will flush all caches it maintains, drop all open TCP connections (if any),
and reload its configuration files.
Added in version 256.
.RE
.SH "CREDENTIALS"
.PP systemd-resolved supports the service credentials logic as
implemented by
ImportCredential=/LoadCredential=/SetCredential= (see
systemd.exec(5) for details). The following credentials are used when
passed in:
.PP network.dns, network.search_domains
May contain a space separated list of DNS server IP addresses and DNS search
domains. This information is only used when no explicit configuration via
/etc/systemd/resolved.conf, /etc/resolv.conf or the kernel command line has
been provided.
Added in version 253.
.RE
.SH "KERNEL COMMAND LINE"
.PP systemd-resolved also honours two kernel command line options:
.PP nameserver=, domain=
Takes the IP address of a DNS server (in case of nameserver=), and a
DNS search domain (in case of domain=). May be used multiple times,
to define multiple DNS servers/search domains. If either of these options
are specified /etc/resolv.conf will not be read and the DNS= and
Domains= settings of resolved.conf(5) will be ignored. These
two kernel command line options hence override system configuration.
Added in version 253.
.RE
.SH "IP PORTS"
.PP The systemd-resolved service listens on the following IP
ports:
•Port 53 on IPv4 addresses 127.0.0.53 and
127.0.0.54 (both are on the local loopback interface lo). This is the local
DNS stub, as discussed above. Both UDP and TCP are covered.
•Port 5353 on all local addresses, both IPv4 and
IPv6 (0.0.0.0 and ::0), for MulticastDNS on UDP. Note that even though the
socket is bound to all local interfaces via the selected "wildcard"
IP addresses, the incoming datagrams are filtered by the network interface
they are coming in on, and separate MulticastDNS link-local scopes are
maintained for each, taking into consideration whether MulticastDNS is enabled
for the interface or not.
•Port 5355 on all local addresses, both IPv4 and
IP6 (0.0.0.0 and ::0), for LLMNR, on both TCP and UDP. As with MulticastDNS
filtering by incoming network interface is applied.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.PP systemd(1), resolved.conf(5),
systemd.dns-delegate(5), systemd.rr(5),
systemd.dnssd(5), dnssec-trust-anchors.d(5),
nss-resolve(8), resolvectl(1), resolv.conf(5),
hosts(5), systemd.network(5),
systemd-networkd.service(8), org.freedesktop.resolve1(5)
- 1.
- RFC3493
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3493
- 2.
- RFC6762
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6762
- 3.
- For example, if /etc/resolv.conf has
nameserver 127.0.0.53
search foobar.com barbar.com
and we look up localhost, nss-dns will send the following queries
to systemd-resolved listening on 127.0.0.53:53: first localhost.foobar.com,
then localhost.barbar.com, and finally localhost. If (hopefully) the first
two queries fail, systemd-resolved will synthesize an answer for the third
query.
.sp
When using nss-dns with any search domains, it is thus
crucial to always configure nss-files with higher priority and provide
mappings for names that should not be resolved using search domains.
- 4.
- There are currently more than 1500 top-level domain names defined, and new
ones are added regularly, often using "attractive" names that
are also likely to be used locally. Not looking up multi-label names in
this fashion avoids fragility in both directions: a valid global name
could be obscured by a local name, and resolution of a relative local name
could suddenly break when a new top-level domain is created, or when a new
subdomain of a top-level domain in registered. Resolving any given name as
either relative or absolute avoids this ambiguity.