Avahi/Zeroconf support

[tomjn]

Sites that use a .local TLD could be advertised using .local.

This would give a way to provide a hostname that can be used on devices that do not support host file modification. For example, when provisioning on a dedicated device such as a raspberry Pi connected to an iOS device.

[tomjn]

This is the puppet config Chassis uses to do it:

https://github.com/humanmade/Chassis/blob/master/puppet/modules/chassis/manifests/hosts.pp

GitHub

Chassis/hosts.pp at master · humanmade/Chassis

📦 Chassis is a virtual server for your WordPress site, built using Vagrant. - Chassis/hosts.pp at master · humanmade/Chassis

[tomjn]

So installing avahi-daemon is enough to get it to expose itself, but it will only expose the machines hostname ( or a different one if we configure it ), and can only do .local TLDs.

If we want multiple TLDs though then we need to take extra steps of wwhcih there are a few options

• we can use /etc/avahi/hosts to list additional domains, but we need to specify the IP too and restart the service when it changes ( it may not be necessary too restart the avahi service ). The file has the same format as the system hosts file
• we can install avahi-utils and use avahi-publish-address too add a single hostname, which immediatley advertises the new host, but the command will keep running, it's more like a daemon/background process
  • e.g. avahi-publish -a -R taxgod.local 192.168.1.2 ( tested locally on a non-VVV system )
  • or /usr/bin/avahi-publish -a -R taxgod.local 192.168.1.2 &
  • This stack exchange question creates a service that can be enabled for each host/domain you want using multi-instance support that can be stopped and started: https://serverfault.com/a/986437/29449

Useful links:

• https://www.shixuen.com/linux/services_avahi.html
• https://linuxcommandlibrary.com/man/avahi-publish
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/775233/how-to-route-all-subdomains-to-a-single-host-using-mdns
• https://pi3g.com/2019/04/10/avahi-how-to-assign-several-local-names-to-same-ip/

Server Fault

Configure Zeroconf to broadcast multiple names

I want to broadcast multiple host names on a local network only from a single instance of Ubuntu Server 10 with Zeroconf or something similar. It has to be zeroconf or similar because it's going t...

Haven200

Avahi-Daemon Service

Avahi is a free zero-configuration networking (zeroconf) implementation, including a system formulticast DNS/DNS-SDservice discovery.

Linux Command Library

avahi-publish man | Linux Command Library

avahi-publish linux command man page: Register an mDNS/DNS-SD service or host name or address mapping using the Avahi daemon

Stack Overflow

How to route all subdomains to a single host using mDNS?

I have a development webserver hosting as "myhost.local" which is found using Bonjour/mDNS. The server is running avahi-daemon. The webserver also wants to handle any subdomains of itself. Eg "cat.

pi3g.com

Avahi how to assign several .local names to same IP - pi3g.com

In some situations you would like to access the same computer / IP using different .local names. This is possible using the Avahi daemon. The following is written for Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver. Install Avahi apt install avahi-daemon avahi-utils Avahi automatically adds your computer’s hostname to the .local Domain. For instance, my computer is called…

[tomjn]

Also, it seems that this won't work on Windows out of the box:

• Newer builds of Windows 10 have support if you switch a registry flag
• Anybody who's installed iTunes or some other software may find it came with a client to make this work
• Installing bonjour print services for Windows also installs a client

[tomjn]

2515 installs the daemon and exposes the vvv.local default host, it also installs avahi-utils. It doesn't support the other hosts or site hosts though

[tomjn]

for sites, ideally it should pick up any hosts ending in .local and serve them via Avahi. We'll also need the xhgui domain in .local form, and to adjust the dashboard so vvv.local is used instead of vvv.test when loaded on that URL