Dnsmasq is a lightweight, easy to configure DNS forwarder and DHCP server. It is designed to provide DNS and optionally, DHCP, to a small network. It can serve the names of local machines which are not in the global DNS. The DHCP server integrates with the DNS server and allows machines with DHCP-allocated addresses to appear in the DNS with names configured either in each host or in a central configuration file.

Dnsmasq supports static and dynamic DHCP leases and BOOTP for network booting of diskless machines.

An almost complete feature list can be found on the author's page.

The configuration documentation is contained in the configuration file /etc/dnsmasq.conf.

Here you'll find a few hints how to get a basic configuration of dnsmasq done. It is advised that you read the configuration file carefully, to get most out this application.

Beginning with Bering-uClibc 2.2 dnsmasq will replace dnscache on the base image. Additionally it adds features previously only available if both dhcpd and tinydns were loaded.

It will still be possible for users to switch back and use dnscache, dhcpd and tinydns.