OwNS

OwNS (Own Name Server) is a personal DNS server designed to solve issues related to VPN usage, especially accessing DNS servers within private networks. It combines flexible configuration per domain or network, multi-server management, and a simple static hosts file.

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Table of Contents

• Features
• Installation
• Configuration
  • forward.yaml
  • hosts.txt
• Build & Binaries
• Usage
  • Command Line Flags
  • Systemd Integration
• Dependencies
• Contributing
• Support
• License

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Features

• Recursion & cache (like dnsmasq)
• Custom DNS servers per domain or network slice
• Static hosts file (dnsmasq-style format)
• UDP, TCP, TLS (DoT) support
• Flexible configuration via YAML and hosts.txt

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Installation

Using go install (recommended)

go install github.com/jkerdreux-imt/owns@latest

This will install the latest version of owns to your $GOPATH/bin directory.

From source

git clone https://github.com/jkerdreux-imt/owns.git
cd owns
make
sudo make install

Prerequisites:

• Go >= 1.18
• make

Binaries

Precompiled binaries for various platforms (Linux, Darwin, NetBSD, Windows, ARM64) are available in the GitHub Releases.

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Configuration

Default configuration files are located in /etc/owns/:

• forward.yaml: DNS server configuration per domain/network
• hosts.txt: Static entries (dnsmasq format)

forward.yaml

The forward.yaml file lets you define which DNS servers to use for each network or domain. Here is a sample configuration with multiple entries:

- networks:
    - 192.168.1.0/24
    - 2001:555:4444:3333::/64
  domains:
    - home
  servers:
    - udp://[2001:555:4444:3333::254]
    - tls://192.168.1.254

- networks:
    - 10.0.0.0/8
    - 192.44.75.0/24
  domains:
    - imt-atlantique.fr
  servers:
    - udp://192.44.75.10

- servers:
    - udp://8.8.8.8
    - tls://[2620:fe::9]

Part 1: Home network and domain

This configuration will use the listed servers for any domain ending in .home or any IP in the specified networks.

Part 2: Organization domain and network

This configuration will use the listed server for any domain ending in .imt-atlantique.fr or any IP in the specified networks.

Part 3: Default servers

- servers:
    - udp://8.8.8.8
    - tls://[2620:fe::9]

This block defines default servers used for queries that do not match any specific network or domain above.

• Networks and domains can overlap: the first match is used.
• Default servers are those without associated domains/networks.
• Supported schemes: udp://, tcp://, tls:// (DoT).

hosts.txt

Static entries:

test0.home,192.168.1.2,2001:666:5555:4444::2,test 00 VM
test1.home,192.168.1.3,2001:666:5555:4444::3,test 01 VM
test2.home,192.168.1.4,,test 02 VM

• The ipv6 and txt fields are optional.

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Build & Binaries

To build manually from source:

make

This will generate binaries in the bin/ directory for development or custom builds. For official releases and precompiled binaries, visit the GitHub Releases page.

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Usage

Command Line Flags

owns -bindAddr "[::]" -confDir "/etc/owns" -logLevel "INFO" -port 53

Available flags:

• -bindAddr: Address to bind (default [::])
• -confDir: Configuration directory (default /etc/owns)
• -logLevel: Log level (INFO, DEBUG, ...)
• -port: Listening port (default 53)

Systemd Integration

A systemd service file is provided:

sudo systemctl [start|stop|enable|disable|status] owns

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Dependencies

OwNS uses the following Go modules:

• github.com/miekg/dns: DNS protocol implementation for Go
• github.com/sirupsen/logrus: Structured logging for Go
• gopkg.in/yaml.v3: YAML parsing and encoding

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please:

• Open an issue for suggestions or bugs
• Submit clear and documented pull requests
• Follow Go style (gofmt, staticcheck)

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Support

For questions or issues:

• Open a GitHub issue

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License

This project is licensed under the BSD 3-Clause License.

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Additional Notes

• OwNS has been used daily in my personal network configuration since 2023 without issues.
• Warning: There is no default zone associated with the hosts file. If you query a local host not in hosts.txt, OwNS will forward the query to the default servers (possible DNS leak).