ipfs/kubo

Add DNS Fallback Resolvers

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#8,173 opened on Jun 2, 2021

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P3effort/daysexp/intermediatehelp wantedkind/featuretopic/dns

Description

TLDR if someone wants to implement this: https://github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/issues/8173#issuecomment-1031876782

This issue arises from a chat between Namebase team and @lidel from Protocol Labs about integrating Handshake with IPFS

Given the goals of:

  • IPFS doesn’t want to choose winners
  • IPFS wants to decouple from ICANN and support non-ICANN namespaces
  • IPFS wants to avoid introducing privacy and security risks in implicit defaults
  • IPFS wants the alternative namespaces to be DNS compatible. Preferably they can use DoH endpoints

IPFS can accomplish these goals while supporting non-ICANN namespaces by adding a “fallback” resolver option to DNS.Resolvers that points to a list of DoH endpoints. Each DoH endpoint can point to a different decentralized naming system. When a query fails to resolve through the “.” resolver, query all of the “fallback” resolvers. If one of the resolvers has a match without conflict, then proceed with fetching the IPFS file. Otherwise if there’s a conflict, return an error code (ie HTTP 409 conflict).

The “fallback” setting can be set by default to [“https://query.hdns.io/dns-query”] which is HDNS.io’s Handshake DoH resolver (note that HDNS.io doesn’t log or store IP addresses or any other personal information, as specified in the privacy policy linked on the website). Polkadomain.org and butterflyprotocol.io — two other decentralized naming systems which issue TLDs — can be added as well when they create their own DoH resolvers and issue a PR

Contributor guide

Tech stack
go
Domain
backend
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
4
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
over 1 week
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
mostly clear
Prerequisites
Go programmingDNS basicsIPFS architecture
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
20
Research direction
The issue proposes adding fallback DNS resolvers to IPFS, referencing a comment with implementation details (https://github.com/ipfs/go ipfs/issues/8173#issuecomment 1031876782). The core task involves modifying the DNS resolver logic in the IPFS Go implementation (likely in the `namesys` or `core` package) to support a list of DoH endpoints queried when the default resolver fails. Key files to examine include `namesys/dns.go` and related resolver interfaces. The resolution must handle conflicts between fallback resolvers and return appropriate HTTP status codes (e.g., 409). The maintainer @lidel has provided initial guidance; however, further clarification on the desired configuration format and conflict resolution strategy is needed before implementation.