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dnsmasq

brew install dnsmasq v2.93 GPL-2.0-only OR GPL-3.0-only

Lightweight DNS forwarder and DHCP server for small networks, written in C.

Why you might care

Run a local DNS cache, DHCP server, or PXE server on macOS/Linux without heavy dependencies. Single-process, minimal memory footprint, and useful for development environments, VMs, or home networks. Often used in containers and embedded systems where ISC BIND or Dnsmasq is overkill.

Categories

networking dns server sysadmin

Alternatives

ISC BIND unbound Consul
3.5k
30-day installs · #745
8.3k
90-day · #886
31.8k
365-day · #865

Build dependencies

pkgconf

Links

Caveats

On current macOS releases, `/etc/resolver/<domain>` resolver overrides do not work if the nameserver is `127.0.0.1` and dnsmasq is running on a non-53 port.
To use scoped resolver zones reliably, bind dnsmasq to a non-localhost IP (e.g., a loopback alias like 10.0.0.1) on port 53.

Blurb generated by claude-haiku-4-5 on today.

Raw metadata 
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