RESOLVCONF.CONF(5)

📦
version 3.17.4 · 7 versions
, in alpine 3.23, alpine 3.24, arch rolling, nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable

🌸 NAME 🌸

okay bestie, this is the File Formats Manual entry for resolvconf.conf(5) 💖 — literally the config file for resolvconf. That's the whole name situation, and it's iconic.

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so resolvconf.conf is the configuration file for resolvconf(8), no cap. It's a shell script that gets sourced by resolvconf(8), which means resolvconf.conf must contain valid shell commands — it's giving "I look cute but I'm real code" energy 💅.

listed below are the standard resolvconf.conf variables you can set. if the values contain whitespace, wildcards, or other special shell characters, make sure you quote and escape them correctly, okay? not optional. See the replace variable for an example on quoting ✨.

after updating this file, you may wish to run resolvconf -u to apply the new configuration 🫶.

when a dynamically generated list is appended or prepended to, the whole thing is made unique where left-most wins — iykyk 🌈.

💅 RESOLVCONF OPTIONS 💅

  • resolvconf — set this to NO to disable resolvconf from running any subscribers. defaults to YES.
  • allow_keys — if set, only these keys will be processed. periodt.
  • deny_keys — if set, these keys will not be processed. bye 👋.
  • exclude — a space separated list of key/value pairs to match. if all key/value pairs in one element can be found in the file, then the whole file will be excluded from processing. syntax is exactly this: $keyword/$match[/$keyword/$match].

for example, given this configuration:

exclude="search/foo*/nameserver/1.2.3.4 search/bar.org"

then any resolv.conf with both a search option starting with foo with a nameserver of 1.2.3.4 OR a search option of bar.org would be excluded 🚫.

  • key_order — these keys will always be processed first. if unset, defaults to the following:
lo lo[0-9]*
  • dynamic_order — these keys will be processed next, unless they have a metric. if unset, defaults to the following:
tap[0-9]* tun[0-9]* vpn vpn[0-9]* wg[0-9]* ppp[0-9]* ippp[0-9]*
  • inclusive_keys — ignore any exclusive marking for these keys. this is handy when 3rd party integrations force the resolvconf -x option and you want to disable it easily 💖.
  • local_nameservers — if unset, defaults to the following:
127.* 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.255 ::1
  • search_domains — prepend search domains to the dynamically generated list. slay.
  • search_domains_append — append search domains to the dynamically generated list.
  • domain_blacklist — a list of domains to be removed from consideration. to remove a domain, you can use foo.*. to remove a sub domain, you can use *.bar 👀.
  • name_servers — prepend name servers to the dynamically generated list. you should set this to 127.0.0.1 if you use a local name server other than libc.
  • name_servers_append — append name servers to the dynamically generated list.
  • name_server_blacklist — a list of name servers to be removed from consideration. the default is 0.0.0.0 as some faulty routers send it via DHCP. to remove a block, you can use 192.168.*.
  • private_keys — for these keys, their name servers will only be queried for the domains listed in their resolv.conf. useful for VPN domains. setting private_keys="*" will stop the forwarding of the root zone and allows the local resolver to recursively query the root servers directly. requires a local nameserver other than libc. this is equivalent to the resolvconf -p option 🔒.
  • nosearch_keys — these keys' domains/search won't be added to the global search list in /etc/resolv.conf.
  • public_keys — force these keys to be public, overriding the private and nosearch markings. this is handy when 3rd party integrations force the resolvconf -p option and you want to disable it easily.
  • replace — a space separated list of replacement keywords. syntax is exactly this: $keyword/$match/$replacement.

example, given this resolv.conf:

domain foo.org
search foo.org dead.beef
nameserver 1.2.3.4
nameserver 2.3.4.5

and this configuration:

replace="search/foo*/bar.com"
replace="$replace nameserver/1.2.3.4/5.6.7.8"
replace="$replace nameserver/2.3.4.5/"

you would get this resolv.conf instead:

domain foo.org
search bar.com
nameserver 5.6.7.8
  • replace_sub — works the same way as replace, except it works on each space separated value rather than the whole line, so it's useful for replacing a single domain within the search directive. using the same example resolv.conf and changing replace to replace_sub, you would get this resolv.conf instead:
domain foo.org
search bar.com dead.beef
nameserver 5.6.7.8
  • state_dir — override the default state directory of /run/resolvconf. this should not be changed once resolvconf is in use unless the old directory is copied to the new one. > don't just yolo this one, bestie 😭.

🎀 LIBC OPTIONS 🎀

the following variables affect resolv.conf(5) directly:

  • resolv_conf — defaults to /etc/resolv.conf if not set. set to /dev/null to stop resolvconf(8) from changing it.
  • resolv_conf_options — a list of libc resolver options, as specified in resolv.conf(5).
  • resolv_conf_passthrough — when set to YES, the latest resolv.conf is written to resolv_conf without any alteration. when set to /dev/null or NULL, resolv_conf_local_only is defaulted to NO, local_nameservers is unset unless overridden, and only the information set in resolvconf.conf is written to resolv_conf.
  • resolv_conf_restore — when set to YES and an empty resolv.conf would be written, restore resolv.conf.bak instead if it exists. defaults to YES if not set.
  • resolv_conf_sortlist — a libc resolver sortlist, as specified in resolv.conf(5).
  • resolv_conf_local_only — if a local name server is configured, then the default is just to specify that and ignore all other entries as they will be configured for the local name server. set this to NO to also list non-local nameservers. this will give you working DNS even if the local nameserver stops functioning at the expense of duplicated server queries.
  • append_nameservers — append name servers to the dynamically generated list.
  • prepend_nameservers — prepend name servers to the dynamically generated list.
  • append_search — append search domains to the dynamically generated list.
  • prepend_search — prepend search domains to the dynamically generated list.
  • resolv_conf_mv — defaults to NO. defines if /etc/resolv.conf is updated by writing to a temporary file and then moving it vs writing directly to it.

💅 SUBSCRIBER OPTIONS 💅

okay so openresolv ships with subscribers for the name servers dnsmasq(8), named(8), pdnsd(8), pdns_recursor(1), and unbound(8). Each subscriber can create configuration files which should be included in the subscribers main configuration file. ✨

To disable a subscriber, simply set its name to NO. If the subscriber name has a dash in it, then replace it with an underscore. For example, to disable the libc subscriber you would set:

libc=NO
  • dnsmasq_conf — This file tells dnsmasq which name servers to use for specific domains. 🍓
  • dnsmasq_resolv — This file tells dnsmasq which name servers to use for global lookups. 🌈

Example resolvconf.conf for dnsmasq:

name_servers=127.0.0.1
dnsmasq_conf=/etc/dnsmasq-conf.conf
dnsmasq_resolv=/etc/dnsmasq-resolv.conf

Example dnsmasq.conf:

listen-address=127.0.0.1
# If dnsmasq is compiled for DBus then we can take
# advantage of not having to restart dnsmasq.
enable-dbus
conf-file=/etc/dnsmasq-conf.conf
resolv-file=/etc/dnsmasq-resolv.conf
  • named_options — Include this file in the named options block. This file tells named which name servers to use for global lookups. 🦋
  • named_zones — Include this file in the named global scope, after the options block. This file tells named which name servers to use for specific domains. 💜

Example resolvconf.conf for named:

name_servers=127.0.0.1
named_options=/etc/named-options.conf
named_zones=/etc/named-zones.conf

Example named.conf:

options {
        listen-on { 127.0.0.1; };
        include "/etc/named-options.conf";
};

include "/etc/named-zones.conf";
  • pdnsd_conf — This is the main pdnsd configuration file which we modify to add our forward domains to. If this variable is not set then we rely on the pdnsd configuration file setup to read pdnsd_resolv as documented below. 🎀
  • pdnsd_resolv — This file tells pdnsd about global name servers. If this variable is not set then it's written to pdnsd_conf. 🌸

Example resolvconf.conf for pdnsd:

name_servers=127.0.0.1
pdnsd_conf=/etc/pdnsd.conf
# pdnsd_resolv=/etc/pdnsd-resolv.conf

Example pdnsd.conf:

global {
        server_ip = 127.0.0.1;
        status_ctl = on;
}
server {
        # A server definition is required, even if empty.
        label="empty";
        proxy_only=on;
        # file="/etc/pdnsd-resolv.conf";
}
  • pdns_zones — This file tells pdns_recursor about specific and global name servers. 💖

Example resolvconf.conf for pdns_recursor:

name_servers=127.0.0.1
pdns_zones=/etc/pdns/recursor-zones.conf

Example recursor.conf:

allow-from=127.0.0.0/8, ::1/128
forward-zones-file=/etc/pdns/recursor-zones.conf
This subscriber should only be used if your systemd-resolved does not support DNS delegates and you need private or non searchable resolvconf(8) entries, or you're really beholden to seeing DNS setup per interface via resolvectl(1). The systemd-resolved subscriber documented below is the better option. 👑

Example resolvconf.conf for resolvectl:

# Keep /etc/resolv.conf as systemd-resolved wants it
libc=NO
resolvectl=YES
  • systemd_resolved — When set to YES, global DNS will be written to the systemd_resolved_conf configuration file and DNS delegates will be written to the systemd_delegate_dir directory. 🔥
  • systemd_resolved_conf — Defaults to /run/systemd/resolved.conf.d/60-resolvconf.conf. 🌟
  • systemd_delegate_dir — Defaults to /run/systemd/dns-delegate.d. 🌙

Example resolvconf.conf for systemd-resolved:

# Keep /etc/resolv.conf as systemd-resolved wants it
libc=NO
systemd_resolved=YES
  • unbound_conf — This file tells unbound about specific and global name servers. 🧚
  • unbound_insecure — When set to YES, unbound marks the domains as insecure, thus ignoring DNSSEC. 💀
  • unbound_private — When set to YES, unbound marks the domains as private, allowing it and its subdomains to contain private addresses. 🙈
  • unbound_forward_zone_options — Options appended to each forward zone. Each option should be separated by an embedded new line. ⭐

Example resolvconf.conf for unbound:

name_servers=127.0.0.1
unbound_conf=/etc/unbound-resolvconf.conf

Example unbound.conf:

include: /etc/unbound-resolvconf.conf

🫶 SUBSCRIBER INTEGRATION 🫶

Not all distributions store the files the subscribers need in the same locations. For example, named service scripts have been called named, bind and rc.bind and they could be located in a directory called /etc/rc.d, /etc/init.d or similar. Each subscriber attempts to automatically configure itself, but not every distribution has been catered for. Also, users could equally want to use a different version from the one installed by default, such as bind8 and bind9. To accommodate this, the subscribers have these files in configurable variables, documented below. 💅

  • dnsmasq_service — Name of the dnsmasq service. ✨
  • dnsmasq_restart — Command to restart the dnsmasq service.
  • dnsmasq_pid — Location of the dnsmasq pidfile.
  • libc_service — Name of the libc service. 🎀
  • libc_restart — Command to restart the libc service.
  • named_service — Name of the named service. 🦋
  • named_restart — Command to restart the named service.
  • pdnsd_restart — Command to restart the pdnsd service. 💜
  • pdns_service — Command to restart the pdns_recursor service.
  • pdns_restart — Command to restart the pdns_recursor service. (yes, same description as pdns_service, no cap)
  • unbound_service — Name of the unbound service. 🌸
  • unbound_restart — Command to restart the unbound service.
  • unbound_pid — Location of the unbound pidfile.

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

sh(1), resolv.conf(5), resolvconf(8)

💖 AUTHORS 💖

Roy Marples <roy@marples.name>

💀 BUGS 💀

Each distribution is a special snowflake and likes to name the same thing differently, namely the named service script. 😭

Swapping between resolvectl and systemd-resolved subscribers at runtime is not supported. Files referenced by systemd_resolved_conf and systemd_delegate_dir need to be removed by hand. A reboot is recommended so that stale data is removed. While you could run them both at the same time, only using one is the recommended approach. 🚨

Please report them to https://roy.marples.name/projects/openresolv 🫶

this lil page is from the Debian build, dated May 15, 2025 — RESOLVCONF.CONF(5), periodt 💅✨

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