Dear all,

We are pleased to announce the special, IETF98 hackathon, first release candidate for the new feature release version 1.1.0 of getdns.

This version comes with the DNS Privacy stub resolver Stubby. Stubby encrypts DNS queries sent from a client machine (desktop or laptop) to a DNS Privacy resolver increasing end user privacy. Stubby is in the early stages of development but is suitable for technical/advanced users. A more generally user-friendly version is on the way! More information about Stubby is here:

• https://getdnsapi.net/blog/dns-privacy-daemon-stubby/.

Stubby will be build by default and will be installed in the ${PREFIX}/bin directory. Also the getdns_query test tool will be build and installed by default now. If you want the library only, you can disable building and installation of those programs with the --without-stubby and --without-getdns_query options to configure.

getdns_query (and Stubby) have had functionality added which was not part of the original API specification, but which we think is useful for other applications as well. This includes functions that have been added to deal with parsing and configuring getdns with a configuration file, and functions to serve DNS requests.

To handle configuration files, functions were added to convert strings to getdns native types, getdns_str2dict(), getdns_str2list(), getdns_str2bindata() and getdns_str2int(); A getdns_context can then be configured with a resulting getdns_dict with the new getdns_context_config() function. This can reduce the amount of code needed to setup a context in a C program.

It also provides default values for extensions and allows the trust anchor and root hints files to be directly specified. For example, the following piece of C code would configure the context to do DNSSEC roadblock avoidance (i.e. validate DNSSEC as stub, fallback to full recursive with hampering middleboxes), with alternative trust-anchor and root-hints.

if (GETDNS_RETURN_GOOD == getdns_str2dict("
    { dnssec_roadblock_avoidance: GETDNS_EXTENSION_TRUE
    , dns_root_servers: \"/etc/yeti.root.hints\"
    , dnssec_trust_anchors: \"/etc/yeti.key\"
    }", &config_dict))
        getdns_context_config(context, config_dict);

More detailed (doxygen) documentation about the string to getdns data structure functions, and about configuring getdns_contexts with getdns_dicts is here:

• https://getdnsapi.net/doxygen/group__Ustring2getdns__data.html
• https://getdnsapi.net/functions/getdns_context_config.html

The getdns_context_set_listen_addresses() function, allows the user to register a request handler function and list of addresses that will be listened on when the eventloop is run. The request handler function will be called when a DNS requests arrives, with the request in getdns reply dict format. The request handler may construct a response to the request and eventually has to call getdns_reply() with that response to answer the request (or NULL to cancel).

I will try to provide and example blog post on the website for this functionality with the actual getdns-1.1.0 release announcement. For now, we have the doxygen documentation and the IETF97 hackathon project delaydns which was using this functionality:

• https://getdnsapi.net/doxygen/group__UServerFunctions.html
• https://github.com/IETF-Hackathon/delaydns

Besides these new functions, we have much improved and more stable and robust scheduling of requests:

• The default event loop, which is also used for synchronous requests, is now based on poll() instead of select() and does not inherit select()'s limits any more.
• The limit on number of outstanding queries, set with the getdns_context_limit_outstanding_queries() function, will now also be obeyed in stub mode. This was an omission from the 1.0.0 release.
• getdns will now queue up requests that could not be scheduled because of resource limitations, to be rescheduled when resources become available again.

We now also have:

• a new modus for stub resolving in which queries are scheduled round robin over the upstreams. This can be enabled with the getdns_context_set_round_robin_upstreams() function.
• more fine grained control over how TLS upstreams are retried with the getdns_context_set_tls_backoff_time() and the getdns_context_set_tls_connection_retries() function.

Finally, we have a new draft MDNS-client implementation by Christian Huitema. To enable it, use the --enable-draft-mdns-client option to configure.

Please review (and possibly use at the IETF98 hackathon) this release candidate carefully, if all is well, the actual release will follow Thursday the 6th of April.

* 2017-04-??: Version 1.1.0
  * More fine grained control over TLS upstream retry and back off
    behaviour with getdns_context_set_tls_backoff_time() and
    getdns_context_set_tls_connection_retries().
  * New round robin over the available upstreams feaure.
    Enable with getdns_context_set_round_robin_upstreams()
  * Bugfix: Queue requests when no sockets available for outgoing queries.
  * Obey the outstanding query limit with STUB resolution mode too.
  * Updated stubby config file
  * Draft MDNS client implementation by Christian Huitema.
    Enable with --enable-draft-mdns-support to configure
  * bugfix: Let synchronous queries use fds > MAX_FDSETSIZE;
            By moving default eventloop from select to poll
    Thanks Neil Cook
  * bugfix: authentication failure for self signed cert + only pinset
  * bugfix: issue with session re-use making authentication appear to fail

* 2016-10-19: Version 1.1.0-a2
  * Improved TLS connection management
  * OpenSSL 1.1 support
  * Stubby, Server version of getdns_query that by default listens
    on 127.0.0.1 and ::1 and reads config from /etc/stubby.conf
    and $HOME/.stubby.conf

* 2016-07-14: Version 1.1.0a1
  * Conversion functions from text strings to getdns native types:
    getdns_str2dict(), getdns_str2list(), getdns_str2bindata() and
    getdns_str2int()
  * A getdns_context_config() function that configures a context
    with settings given in a getdns_dict
  * A a getdns_context_set_listen_addresses() function and companion
    getdns_reply() function to construct simple name servers.
  * Relocate getdns_query to src/tools and build by default
  * Enhancements to the logic used to select connection based upstream
    transports (TCP, TLS) to improve robustness and re-use of
    connections/upstreams.