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Time to time tips and tricks

• on dns, domains

dnsmasq for local dev

  echo 'address=/.test/127.0.0.1' >> $(brew --prefix)/etc/dnsmasq.conf
  sudo brew services restart dnsmasq
  bash -c 'echo "nameserver 127.0.0.1" > /etc/resolver/test'

Following the last tip, i mentioned 3 main ways to point fake domains towards 127.0.0.1:

SERVICES LIKE LVH.ME
+ Nothing to Configure it just ready to use
+ Tools like dig or ping will behave properly
+ As many subdomains as you want
- Requires internet
- You can only works with subdomains, but only lvh.me domain
HOSTS FILES
+ No internet needed
+ Is easy to use
+ 3rd party app make it easier
- I need to configure each domain, subdomain
- Dig or ping will not behave properly
DNSMAQ
+ Can configure a (any fake or not) tld
+ domains/subdomains under the tld will work
+ Dig or ping will behave properly
+ Configuration once done no need to do it again
- More complex configuration

How to use DNSMasq

Installation

  • Install DNSMasq: brew install dnsmasq

Configuration

  $ echo 'address=/.test/127.0.0.1' >> $(brew --prefix)/etc/dnsmasq.conf
  $ sudo brew services restart dnsmasq

With this we have already our dnsmasq system working for .test tld we can check it doing

  $ dig +short somefakedomain.test @127.0.0.1
  127.0.0.1

Now we need make our dns resolution to look for the .test tld in our dnsmasq. This could be done in 2 ways:

  1. Add 127.0.0.1 to our dns resolvers (/etc/resolv.conf). But then that will affect to the resolution of all domains not only the .test.
  2. Or make the dns resolver aware that .test domains has to be resolved with dnsmasq at 127.0.0.1

We are going to do the second one:

  sudo mkdir -v /etc/resolver
  sudo bash -c 'echo "nameserver 127.0.0.1" > /etc/resolver/test'

Once this done, we can test it doing:

  $ ping -c 1 somedomain.test

  # PING somedomain.test (127.0.0.1): 56 data bytes
  # 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.070 ms

  # --- somedomain.test ping statistics ---
  # 1 packets transmitted, 1 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
  # round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 0.070/0.070/0.070/0.000 ms

  $ ping -c 1 another.fakedomain.test

  # PING another.fakedomain.test (127.0.0.1): 56 data bytes
  # 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.058 ms

  # --- another.fakedomain.test ping statistics ---
  # 1 packets transmitted, 1 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
  # round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 0.058/0.058/0.058/0.000 ms

That’s it!! With this and the auto https you no longer need to worry for testing domains/subdomains