DNSSCOPE(1)

📦
version 5.1.4 · 8 versions
, in alpine 3.24, debian trixie, epel 10, epel 9, fedora 43, fedora 44, ubuntu stonking

💖 DNSSCOPE 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because this little icon from the PowerDNS Authoritative Server fam is about to become your new hyperfixation 🫶 it's a PowerDNS nameserver debugging tool, and yes it's giving "I read packet captures for fun" but like, in the cutest way possible 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

dnsscope [OPTION]... INFILE

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so dnsscope takes an INFILE that's in PCAP format, right? and it just... generates some simple statistics, and outputs them to STDOUT. that's it. that's the whole vibe. no cap, it's literally that simple and I'm obsessed 😭✨

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

  • INFILE — the path to your PCAP file. your main character file, if you will 👑
  • -h, --help — shows the help. bestie behavior fr fr, always there when you need it 🫶
  • --rd — only processes packets in INFILE that have the RD (Recursion Desired) flag set. by default tho, we process all DNS packets in INFILE. so this one's for when you're feeling picky 💅
  • --ipv4=<state> — processes IPv4 packets. it's on by default, so if you wanna shut it off you do --ipv4 false. turning off the default? bold. iconic. I support it 🌈
  • --ipv6=<state> — processes IPv6 packets. also on by default, disable it with --ipv6 false. same energy, different address family ✨
  • -f,--filter-name=<domain> — only processes packets within this domain. keep your eyes on the prize, no distractions 🎯
  • --full-histogram <msec> — writes out a histogram with the specified bin-size to full-histogram. numbers!! pretty!! 📊
  • --log-histogram — writes out a log-histogram of response times to log-histogram. the log girlies stay winning 📈
  • --no-servfail-stats — removes servfail responses from the latency statistics. sometimes you just gotta ✨curate✨ your data, y'know?
  • --port — the source and destination port to consider. default is looking at packets from and to ports 53 and 5300. two ports, one queen 🫶
  • --servfail-tree — figures out subtrees that generate servfails. detective mode: activated 🔍💀
  • --stats-dir <directory> — drops statistics files in this directory. defaults to ./ — which is literally just wherever you already are, cozy 💖
  • -l, --load-stats — emits per-second load statistics (questions, answers, outstanding). the full trio, we love a complete set ✨
  • -w <file>, --write-failures <file> — writes weird packets to a PCAP file at FILENAME. yes, the weird ones. they go in the jar 🫙
  • -v, --verbose — be more verbose. talk more. give us the details. we're listening 👂💜

🌟 SEE ALSO 🌟

👑 AUTHOR 👑

PowerDNS.COM BV

PowerDNS.COM BV

ngl, if you got this far you're officially a packet-capture baddie. go forth and inspect those DNS packets, bestie 💅🔥

so yeah, that's dnsscope from the PowerDNS Authoritative Server, dated Aug 05, 2026. slay, periodt, and remember: the RD flag doesn't stand for "really desirable", it stands for Recursion Desired, iykyk 💖✨🦋

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