pdnsd is a caching

Cache

In computer engineering, a cache is a component that transparently stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster. The data that is stored within a cache might be values that have been computed earlier or duplicates of original values that are stored elsewhere...

 DNS

Domain name system

The Domain Name System is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities...

 proxy

Proxy server

In computer networks, a proxy server is a server that acts as an intermediary for requests from clients seeking resources from other servers. A client connects to the proxy server, requesting some service, such as a file, connection, web page, or other resource available from a different server...

 server created originally by Thomas Moestl and currently maintained by Paul Rombouts.

pdnsd is configurable by a config file or using the program pdns-ctl that comes with the package. Unlike BIND

BIND

BIND , or named , is the most widely used DNS software on the Internet.On Unix-like operating systems it is the de facto standard.Originally written by four graduate students at the Computer Systems Research Group at the University of California, Berkeley , the name originates as an acronym from...

, pdnsd stores cached DNS records on disk for long term retention and will not purge the cache upon program startup or shutdown. pdnsd is designed to be highly adaptable to situations where net connectivity is slow, unreliable, unavailable, or highly dynamic, as is the case with wifi

WIFI

WIFI is a radio station broadcasting a brokered format. Licensed to Florence, New Jersey, USA, the station is currently operated by Florence Broadcasting Partners, LLC.This station was previously owned by Real Life Broadcasting...

 hotspots or dialup internet. This program also has limited capability of acting as an authoritative nameserver for a local DNS zone

DNS zone

A DNS zone is a portion of the global Domain Name System namespace for which administrative responsibility has been delegated.-Definition:...

 within a private network

Private network

In the Internet addressing architecture, a private network is a network that uses private IP address space, following the standards set by RFC 1918 and RFC 4193. These addresses are commonly used for home, office, and enterprise local area networks , when globally routable addresses are not...

.

The program is released under the GNU General Public License

GNU General Public License

The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....

 (GPL).

See also

• Comparison of DNS server software
  Comparison of DNS server software
  This article presents a comparison of the features, platform support, and packaging of independent implementations of Domain Name System name server software.- Servers compared :...
  
  
• dbndns
  Dbndns
  dbndns is a fork of the djbdns software package, maintained by the Debian Project, made possible by the release of djbdns to the public domain.Most notably, this now includes IPv6 support....
  
  
• Unbound (DNS Server)
  Unbound (DNS Server)
  Unbound is a validating, recursive, and caching DNS server software product from NLnet Labs, VeriSign Inc., Nominet, and . It is distributed free of charge in open source form under the BSD license....