- Closes#457.
- A container can now declare additional DNS names for
a network attachment with a repeatable `alias` property
on `--network`, including subtree aliases that match
every name below a domain.
- With the default domain `test`, this container answers
to `gateway.test` by its name, to `api.test` by the exact
alias, and to `web.gateway.test`, `a.b.gateway.test`
and every other name below `gateway.test` by the
subtree alias. The motivating case is a gateway container
in front of a local Kubernetes cluster that answers for
`*.gateway.test`, with an ingress controller routing on
the `Host` header.
- An alias is an exact name, or a name with a leading
dot that matches every name below it. A name without
a dot gets the default domain, as container names do.
A subtree alias must be below a name the same
attachment owns, and exact names are unique across
all containers, so a container cannot claim another
container's namespace. The rules for one attachment
are checked when a container is created, again when
a stored container starts, and again by the network
helper when it registers the aliases. See
`docs/architecture/dns.md` for the design, the
invariants and the security considerations.
- Closes#1268.
- The types we were using weren't very usable with Swift 6 structured
concurrency.
- Implements just the subset of records that we use.
- Use notImplemented instead of formatError for unknown record types.
- Use pure actor for LocalhostDNSHandler now that we have sendable
types.
- Use DNSName as key for table lookups in LocalhostDNSHandler and
HostTableResolver.
- Utilize dot-suffixed domain names everywhere in the lookup chain.
- Huge thanks to @manojmahapatra and @katiewasnothere for their
diligent and patient review :D
- In Alpine Linux containers (commonly used as Docker base images),
standard DNS resolution is provided by **musl**, a lightweight C
standard library (libc). Musl implements DNS lookups via
`getaddrinfo()`, which queries AAAA (IPv6) records first.
- Problem: DNS did not work correctly **inside containers**. Any
system command attempting to resolve hostnames
(e.g., `ping dynamodb-admin`) **failed** when the DNS server
responded NXDOMAIN for AAAA records, even if A (IPv4) records
existed. Explicitly forcing IPv4 (`ping -4dynamodb-admin`) worked
correctly, showing the issue is specific to musl’s IPv6-first behavior.
- Consequence: In IPv4-only environments, Alpine-based containers
cannot resolve hostnames using standard tools or libraries.
Applications relying on `getaddrinfo()` fail with ENOTFOUND,
breaking networking and inter-container communication.
- Root cause: Following RFC 8305 / RFC 6724, musl treats NXDOMAIN
for AAAA as “hostname does not exist” and does not fallback to A
(IPv4) records.
- Fix: The Apple Container DNS engine now behaves as follows:
* If an **A record exists**, AAAA queries return **NOERROR with empty
answer (NODATA)**.
* If neither **A nor AAAA** exist, NXDOMAIN is returned.
This ensures that Alpine-based containers in IPv4-only networks can
correctly resolve hostnames inside containers without modifying
container images or application code.
J Logan