1 README for Unbound 1.4.20
2 Copyright 2007 NLnet Labs
5 This software is under BSD license, see LICENSE for details.
7 * Download the latest release version of this software from
9 or get a beta version from the svn repository at
10 http://unbound.net/svn/
12 * Uses the following libraries;
13 * ldns http://www.nlnetlabs.nl/ldns/ (BSD license)
14 (required) can use ldns build directory directly with --with-ldns=path.
15 * libevent http://www.monkey.org/~provos/libevent/ (BSD license)
16 (optional) can use builtin alternative instead.
18 * Make and install: ./configure; make; make install
19 * --with-ldns=/path/to/ldns
20 It will dynamically link against it.
21 * --with-libevent=/path/to/libevent
22 Can be set to either the system install or the build directory.
23 --with-libevent=no (default) gives a builtin alternative
24 implementation. libevent is useful when having many (thousands)
25 of outgoing ports. This improves randomization and spoof
26 resistance. For the default of 16 ports the builtin alternative
27 works well and is a little faster.
28 * --with-libexpat=/path/to/libexpat
29 Can be set to the install directory of libexpat.
31 This disables pthreads. Without this option the pthreads library
32 is detected automatically. Use this option to disable threading
33 altogether, or, on Solaris, also use --with(out)-solaris-threads.
35 This enables assertions in the code that guard against a variety of
36 programming errors, among which buffer overflows. The program exits
37 with an error if an assertion fails (but the buffer did not overflow).
39 This enables a debug option to statically link, against ldns and
41 * --enable-lock-checks
42 This enables a debug option to check lock and unlock calls. It needs
43 a recent pthreads library to work.
44 * --enable-alloc-checks
45 This enables a debug option to check malloc (calloc, realloc, free).
46 The server periodically checks if the amount of memory used fits with
47 the amount of memory it thinks it should be using, and reports
48 memory usage in detail.
49 * --with-conf-file=filename
50 Set default location of config file,
51 the default is /usr/local/etc/unbound/unbound.conf.
52 * --with-pidfile=filename
53 Set default location of pidfile,
54 the default is /usr/local/etc/unbound/unbound.pid.
56 Set default working directory,
57 the default is /usr/local/etc/unbound.
58 * --with-chroot-dir=path
59 Set default chroot directory,
60 the default is /usr/local/etc/unbound.
61 * --with-rootkey-file=path
62 Set the default root.key path. This file is read and written.
63 the default is /usr/local/etc/unbound/root.key
64 * --with-rootcert-file=path
65 Set the default root update certificate path. A builtin certificate
66 is used if this file is empty or does not exist.
67 the default is /usr/local/etc/unbound/icannbundle.pem
68 * --with-username=user
69 Set default user name to change to,
70 the default is the "unbound" user.
72 Create libunbound wrapper usable from python.
73 Needs python-devel and swig development tools.
75 Compile the python module that processes responses in the server.
77 Disable support for RSASHA256 and RSASHA512 crypto.
79 Disable support for GOST crypto, RFC 5933.
81 * 'make test' runs a series of self checks.
85 o If there are no replies for a forward or stub zone, for a reverse zone,
86 you may need to add a local-zone: name transparent or nodefault to the
87 server: section of the config file to unblock the reverse zone.
88 Only happens for (sub)zones that are blocked by default; e.g. 10.in-addr.arpa
89 o If libevent is older (before 1.3c), unbound will exit instead of reload
90 on sighup. On a restart 'did not exit gracefully last time' warning is
91 printed. Perform ./configure --with-libevent=no or update libevent, rerun
92 configure and recompile unbound to make sighup work correctly.
93 It is strongly suggested to use a recent version of libevent.
94 o If you are not receiving the correct source IP address on replies (e.g.
95 you are running a multihomed, anycast server), the interface-automatic
96 option can be enabled to set socket options to achieve the correct
97 source IP address on UDP replies. Listing all IP addresses explicitly in
98 the config file is an alternative. The interface-automatic option uses
99 non portable socket options, Linux and FreeBSD should work fine.
100 o The warning 'openssl has no entropy, seeding with time', with chroot
101 enabled, may be solved with a symbolic link to /dev/random from <chrootdir>.
102 o On Solaris 5.10 some libtool packages from repositories do not work with
103 gcc, showing errors gcc: unrecognized option `-KPIC'
104 To solve this do ./configure libtool=./libtool [your options...].
105 On Solaris you may pass CFLAGS="-xO4 -xtarget=generic" if you use sun-cc.
106 o If unbound-control (or munin graphs) do not work, this can often be because
107 the unbound-control-setup script creates the keys with restricted
108 permissions, and the files need to be made readable or ownered by both the
109 unbound daemon and unbound-control.
110 o Crosscompile seems to hang. You tried to install unbound under wine.
111 wine regedit and remove all the unbound entries from the registry or
112 delete .wine/drive_c.
116 o Unbound was written in portable C by Wouter Wijngaards (NLnet Labs).
117 o Thanks to David Blacka and Matt Larson (Verisign) for the unbound-java
118 prototype. Design and code from that prototype has been used to create
119 this program. Such as the iterator state machine and the cache design.
120 o Other code origins are from the NSD (NLnet Labs) and LDNS (NLnet Labs)
121 projects. Such as buffer, region-allocator and red-black tree code.
122 o See Credits file for contributors.
127 NLnet Labs offers all of its software products as open source, most are
128 published under a BSD license. You can download them, not only from the
129 NLnet Labs website but also through the various OS distributions for
130 which NSD, ldns, and Unbound are packaged. We therefore have little idea
131 who uses our software in production environments and have no direct ties
132 with 'our customers'.
134 Therefore, we ask you to contact us at users@NLnetLabs.nl and tell us
135 whether you use one of our products in your production environment,
136 what that environment looks like, and maybe even share some praise.
137 We would like to refer to the fact that your organization is using our
138 products. We will only do that if you explicitly allow us. In all other
139 cases we will keep the information you share with us to ourselves.
141 In addition to the moral support you can also support us
142 financially. NLnet Labs is a recognized not-for-profit charity foundation
143 that is chartered to develop open-source software and open-standards
144 for the Internet. If you use our software to satisfaction please express
145 that by giving us a donation. For small donations PayPal can be used. For
146 larger and regular donations please contact us at users@NLnetLabs.nl. Also
147 see http://www.nlnetlabs.nl/labs/contributors/.
150 * mailto:unbound-bugs@nlnetlabs.nl