summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/Documentation/networking
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorWang Lei <wang840925@gmail.com>2010-08-04 15:16:33 +0100
committerSteve French <sfrench@us.ibm.com>2010-08-05 17:17:51 +0000
commit1a4240f4764ac78adbf4b0ebb49b3bd8c72ffa11 (patch)
tree7d9de5b071e7ab8a8355bdf7902db4c0a0e812b1 /Documentation/networking
parentba5dadbf4e7b531bd7ccecffb4d3935c80a3372e (diff)
downloadlinux-1a4240f4764ac78adbf4b0ebb49b3bd8c72ffa11.tar.bz2
DNS: Separate out CIFS DNS Resolver code
Separate out the DNS resolver key type from the CIFS filesystem into its own module so that it can be made available for general use, including the AFS filesystem module. This facility makes it possible for the kernel to upcall to userspace to have it issue DNS requests, package up the replies and present them to the kernel in a useful form. The kernel is then able to cache the DNS replies as keys can be retained in keyrings. Resolver keys are of type "dns_resolver" and have a case-insensitive description that is of the form "[<type>:]<domain_name>". The optional <type> indicates the particular DNS lookup and packaging that's required. The <domain_name> is the query to be made. If <type> isn't given, a basic hostname to IP address lookup is made, and the result is stored in the key in the form of a printable string consisting of a comma-separated list of IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. This key type is supported by userspace helpers driven from /sbin/request-key and configured through /etc/request-key.conf. The cifs.upcall utility is invoked for UNC path server name to IP address resolution. The CIFS functionality is encapsulated by the dns_resolve_unc_to_ip() function, which is used to resolve a UNC path to an IP address for CIFS filesystem. This part remains in the CIFS module for now. See the added Documentation/networking/dns_resolver.txt for more information. Signed-off-by: Wang Lei <wang840925@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> Acked-by: Jeff Layton <jlayton@redhat.com> Signed-off-by: Steve French <sfrench@us.ibm.com>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/networking')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/networking/dns_resolver.txt146
1 files changed, 146 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/networking/dns_resolver.txt b/Documentation/networking/dns_resolver.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..d8e0ce1d38c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/networking/dns_resolver.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,146 @@
+ ===================
+ DNS Resolver Module
+ ===================
+
+Contents:
+
+ - Overview.
+ - Compilation.
+ - Setting up.
+ - Usage.
+ - Mechanism.
+ - Debugging.
+
+
+========
+OVERVIEW
+========
+
+The DNS resolver module provides a way for kernel services to make DNS queries
+by way of requesting a key of key type dns_resolver. These queries are
+upcalled to userspace through /sbin/request-key.
+
+These routines must be supported by userspace tools dns.upcall, cifs.upcall and
+request-key. It is under development and does not yet provide the full feature
+set. The features it does support include:
+
+ (*) Implements the dns_resolver key_type to contact userspace.
+
+It does not yet support the following AFS features:
+
+ (*) Dns query support for AFSDB resource record.
+
+This code is extracted from the CIFS filesystem.
+
+
+===========
+COMPILATION
+===========
+
+The module should be enabled by turning on the kernel configuration options:
+
+ CONFIG_DNS_RESOLVER - tristate "DNS Resolver support"
+
+
+==========
+SETTING UP
+==========
+
+To set up this facility, the /etc/request-key.conf file must be altered so that
+/sbin/request-key can appropriately direct the upcalls. For example, to handle
+basic dname to IPv4/IPv6 address resolution, the following line should be
+added:
+
+ #OP TYPE DESC CO-INFO PROGRAM ARG1 ARG2 ARG3 ...
+ #====== ============ ======= ======= ==========================
+ create dns_resolver * * /usr/sbin/cifs.upcall %k
+
+To direct a query for query type 'foo', a line of the following should be added
+before the more general line given above as the first match is the one taken.
+
+ create dns_resolver foo:* * /usr/sbin/dns.foo %k
+
+
+
+=====
+USAGE
+=====
+
+To make use of this facility, one of the following functions that are
+implemented in the module can be called after doing:
+
+ #include <linux/dns_resolver.h>
+
+ (1) int dns_query(const char *type, const char *name, size_t namelen,
+ const char *options, char **_result, time_t *_expiry);
+
+ This is the basic access function. It looks for a cached DNS query and if
+ it doesn't find it, it upcalls to userspace to make a new DNS query, which
+ may then be cached. The key description is constructed as a string of the
+ form:
+
+ [<type>:]<name>
+
+ where <type> optionally specifies the particular upcall program to invoke,
+ and thus the type of query to do, and <name> specifies the string to be
+ looked up. The default query type is a straight hostname to IP address
+ set lookup.
+
+ The name parameter is not required to be a NUL-terminated string, and its
+ length should be given by the namelen argument.
+
+ The options parameter may be NULL or it may be a set of options
+ appropriate to the query type.
+
+ The return value is a string appropriate to the query type. For instance,
+ for the default query type it is just a list of comma-separated IPv4 and
+ IPv6 addresses. The caller must free the result.
+
+ The length of the result string is returned on success, and a -ve error
+ code is returned otherwise. -EKEYREJECTED will be returned if the DNS
+ lookup failed.
+
+ If _expiry is non-NULL, the expiry time (TTL) of the result will be
+ returned also.
+
+
+=========
+MECHANISM
+=========
+
+The dnsresolver module registers a key type called "dns_resolver". Keys of
+this type are used to transport and cache DNS lookup results from userspace.
+
+When dns_query() is invoked, it calls request_key() to search the local
+keyrings for a cached DNS result. If that fails to find one, it upcalls to
+userspace to get a new result.
+
+Upcalls to userspace are made through the request_key() upcall vector, and are
+directed by means of configuration lines in /etc/request-key.conf that tell
+/sbin/request-key what program to run to instantiate the key.
+
+The upcall handler program is responsible for querying the DNS, processing the
+result into a form suitable for passing to the keyctl_instantiate_key()
+routine. This then passes the data to dns_resolver_instantiate() which strips
+off and processes any options included in the data, and then attaches the
+remainder of the string to the key as its payload.
+
+The upcall handler program should set the expiry time on the key to that of the
+lowest TTL of all the records it has extracted a result from. This means that
+the key will be discarded and recreated when the data it holds has expired.
+
+dns_query() returns a copy of the value attached to the key, or an error if
+that is indicated instead.
+
+See <file:Documentation/keys-request-key.txt> for further information about
+request-key function.
+
+
+=========
+DEBUGGING
+=========
+
+Debugging messages can be turned on dynamically by writing a 1 into the
+following file:
+
+ /sys/module/dnsresolver/parameters/debug