This manual page is for Mac OS X version 10.6.3

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mDNSResponder(8)                         BSD System Manager's Manual                        mDNSResponder(8)

NAME
     mDNSResponder -- Multicast and Unicast DNS daemon

SYNOPSIS
     mDNSResponder

DESCRIPTION
     mDNSResponder (also known as mdnsd on some systems) is a daemon invoked at boot time to implement Mul-ticast Multicast
     ticast DNS and DNS Service Discovery. On Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), mDNSResponder is also the sys-tem-wide system-wide
     tem-wide Unicast DNS Resolver.

     mDNSResponder listens on UDP port 5353 for Multicast DNS Query packets.  When it receives a query for
     which it knows an answer, mDNSResponder issues the appropriate Multicast DNS Reply packet.

     mDNSResponder also performs Unicast and Multicast DNS Queries on behalf of client processes, and main-tains maintains
     tains a cache of the replies.

     mDNSResponder has no user-specifiable command-line argument, and users should not run mDNSResponder
     manually.

   LOGGING
     There are several methods with which to examine mDNSResponder's internal state for debugging and
     diagnostic purposes. The syslog(1) logging levels map as follows:

           Error - Error messages
           Warning - Client-initiated operations
           Notice - Sleep proxy operations
           Info - Informational messages

     By default, only log level Error is logged.

     A SIGUSR1 signal toggles additional logging, with Warning and Notice enabled by default:

           % sudo killall -USR1 mDNSResponder

     Once this logging is enabled, users can additionally use syslog(1) to change the log filter for the
     process. For example, to enable log levels Emergency - Debug:

           % sudo syslog -c mDNSResponder -d

     A SIGUSR2 signal toggles packet logging:

           % sudo killall -USR2 mDNSResponder

     A SIGINFO signal will dump a snapshot summary of the internal state to /var/log/system.log:

           % sudo killall -INFO mDNSResponder

FILES
     /usr/sbin/mDNSResponder

SEE ALSO
     mDNS(1)

     For information on Multicast DNS, see http://www.multicastdns.org/

     For information on DNS Service Discovery, see http://www.dns-sd.org/

     For information on how to use the Multicast DNS and the DNS Service Discovery APIs on Mac OS X and
     other platforms, see http://developer.apple.com/bonjour/

     For the source code to mDNSResponder, see http://developer.apple.com/darwin/projects/bonjour/

BUGS
     mDNSResponder bugs are tracked in Apple Radar component "mDNSResponder".

HISTORY
     The mDNSResponder daemon first appeared in Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar).

     Also available from the Darwin open source repository (though not officially supported by Apple) are
     mDNSResponder daemons for other platforms, including Mac OS 9, Microsoft Windows, Linux, FreeBSD,
     NetBSD, Solaris, and other POSIX systems.

Darwin                                          May 12, 2010                                          Darwin