This is the original Summer of Code proposal (some private and non-project relevant data excluded)
Multicast DNS responder
Name: Fredrik Lindberg
Implement a BSD-licensed Multicast DNS responder and an accompanied NSS (Name-Service Switch) module which provides integration with the name resolver library.
Multicast DNS (mDNS) [1] is a part of Zero Configuration Networking (Zeroconf) and provides the ability to address hosts using DNS-like names without the need of an existing (unicast), managed DNS server.
[1] http://www.multicastdns.org/
Benefits to the FreeBSD Community
A BSD-licensed Multicast DNS (mDNS) responder can be integrated into the FreeBSD base without licensing issues. Companies embedding FreeBSD into "black boxes" will be able to provide mDNS services out of the box, including Service Discovery which can run on top of mDNS. mDNS will also be of use to home-users with smaller networks or on ad-hoc networks that might not have a working local DNS server, these users will be able to interact with their machines using hostnames instead of plain IP-numbers without the need to maintain a hosts-file.
Deliverables
- Implement a Multicast DNS responder with a client API.
- Implement a NSS module (using the created API) to integrate mDNS with the rest of the name lookup routines.
- Implement administrative and mDNS debugging tools (command line applications).
Secondary goals
Implement/integrate Service Discovery including announcement of services (such as LPD) but also a command line browser. Create wrapper libraries compatible with the API provided by the GPL-licensed responder Avahi. The purpose of this is to allow existing programs that uses the Avahi API to work without modifications with the BSD-licensed responder.
Project Schedule
I will be able to start work at the end of May. Implementing the whole project including secondary goals will probably take somewhere around 3 months.