COREDNS(1)

📦
version 1.15.0 · 2 versions
, in nixpkgs unstable, opensuse-leap 16.0

💅 COREDNS(1) — like, the whole manual bestie

Okay so first things first: the page you're reading is COREDNS(1), and honestly? It's a whole vibe. Sit down, grab a boba, and let me tell you about the pluggable DNS nameserver that literally everyone's obsessed with. 🫶

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

coredns [-conf FILE] [-dns.port PORT} [OPTION]...

(Yes bestie, that curly brace is exactly what the page says, don't come for me 💅)

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

CoreDNS is a DNS server that chains plugins together. Like, imagine each plugin is a little fairy 🧚 with exactly one job — rewriting queries, doing kubernetes service discovery, or literally just exporting metrics — and they all hold hands in a chain. Iconic behaviour, no cap.

There are so many other plugins out there, each one with its own write-up at https://coredns.io/plugins and its own manual page. And the plugins that don't ship bundled by default in CoreDNS? Those live over at https://coredns.io/explugins. Go browse, it's giving treasure hunt. 🦋

Okay so here's what happens when you just run it with zero options, and this part is important:

When started with no options at all, CoreDNS goes looking for a file named Corefile in the current directory. If it finds it, it parses what's inside and starts up accordingly, periodt. If there's no Corefile? It starts up with the whoami plugin (coredns-whoami(7)) and starts listening on port 53 — unless you override that with -dns.port. 💖

Available options 🎀

  • -conf FILE — tells CoreDNS which Corefile to load. If you don't give it one, it'll go hunting for a Corefile in the current directory instead. 🔍
  • -dns.port PORT or -p PORT — overrides the default port (53) it listens on. Two ways to say the same thing, choose your fighter.
  • -pidfile FILE — writes the PID into FILE. For when you gotta keep receipts on the process. 📝
  • -plugins — lists out all the plugins and then quits. A little show-and-tell, then it dips. 👋
  • -quiet — prints no version or port info on startup. Silent, mysterious, main character energy. 🤫
  • -version — shows the version and quits. Blink and it's gone.
  • -windows-service — runs as a Windows service. Heads up: this one's only available on Windows builds, and it defaults to false. 🙈

👑 AUTHORS 👑

CoreDNS Authors. — the collective, the legends, the group chat.

Apache License 2.0

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

Okay this list is long and honestly a flex, so here's the whole squad, not one single one skipped:

And that's the whole page, bestie — go forth and slay some DNS queries. 💅✨ This little rewrite comes from the CoreDNS manual, dated March 2026, and the original page signs itself COREDNS(1) too. Mwah, bye! 💖

📦 where this page comes from