[snip]
>> >> The computer on which dnsmasq runs should have a resolv.conf
>> >> containing "nameserver 127.0.0.1" (and NOTHING ELSE) - assuming you
>> >> want it to cache for itself as well as other computers on your LAN.
>> >
>> >Eh? How would it know who to use as dns forwarder if that were the case?
>> >No - it can have all it likes, PLUS 127.0.0.1. Dnsmasq reads
>> >resolv.conf to figure out the forwarders.
>>
>> Peter,
>>
>> Read what I said, which was
>> server=ns.ip.goes.here
>
> You did not say it, and I quoted what you said (whoever "you" are,
> "buck").
>
>> Which is where the forwarders come from.
>
> I have no idea exactly what you are talking about there, but it looks
> like a line from some configuration file or tool. What has that got to
> do with dnsmasq? How about speaking in complete sentences? Might it be
> a line from dnsmasq.conf? If so, why put it there? The right place for
> it is as an entry in resolv.conf, where dnsmasq will pick it up, cache
> for it, and forward to it, as it is designed to do, and where dhcp will
> add the entry if it is allowed to! May I draw your attention to another
> line in the dnsmasq.conf file:

Sorry but Buck is right: server= is an option of dnsmasq (in
dnsmasq.conf).

What you are suggesting (letting the servers in the resolf.conf file)
is ok in the sense that all the machines using the machine where
dnsmasq is installed will be using dnsmasq (I know
that this is not the better explanation but ...)

The problem with what you are suggesting is that all the requests made
on the machine where dnsmasq is installed will bypass dnsmasq
(they will use the external DNS servers found in resolv.conf)

If we instruct dnsmaq with no-resolv *and* servers=.... not to use
/etc/resolv conf we will have a working dnsmasq and more important we
will be able to put 127.0.0.1 in resolv.conf to allow the machine
itself to use dnsconf.

Matteo

--
Matteo Corti
Computer Systems Institute
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich