.local/mDNS resolving in FC5 [was Re: Zeroconf in FC5?]

[Mark McLoughlin]

Hi Ulrich,

On Sat, 2005-06-04 at 17:21 -0700, Ulrich Drepper wrote:
> Daryll Strauss wrote:
> > So, I'd like to see zeroconf
> > really integrated in to FC5. I think it'll make network setup for a lot
> > of users much easier.
> 
> So get working.  There is a lot to do.  And don't mention these foolish
> attempts of integration done by some other distributions.
> 
> What is needed is another daemon (or an extended and renamed
> mDNSResponder) which monitors the network and caches all entries for the
> appropriate time.  The daemon needs a programming interface so that a
> new NSS module can be used to query the daemon's cache of known
> addresses and probably also to initiate the daemon to send out requests
> for information which isn't in the cache.
> 
> I talked with the author of the current (unusable) nss_mdns module and
> he plans to do something like this after I explained it to him.  But I
> haven't seen any progress.

	It seems like the nss-mdns author has made some progress on this. The
latest version allows queries to be directed through Avahi's mDNS
responder (the responder in FC5), meaning responses are cached directly
etc.

	Any opinions on this implementation and whether or not it would be
appropriate to include in FC5?

	From a quick look at the code, one of my initial concerns is that, for
every query, the module opens a new connection with the daemon and opens
the /etc/mdns.allow file.

	At the very least, though, it looks like progress in the direction you
suggested.

Cheers,
Mark.

P.S. - Bastien points out his packaging of the 0.6 version:

  http://files.hadess.net/redhat/perso/source/nss-mdns-0.6-1.src.rpm

       Might be a useful starting point for anyone wanting to package
the 0.7 version with --enable-avahi