MaraDNS acts as an authoritative DNS server. Recursion is handled by the included "Deadwood" program.

To try out Deadwood as a recursive nameserver:

• Compile MaraDNS and Deadwood. Type in './configure; make' in the top-level MaraDNS directory. Note: No need to compile if you downloaded a binary RPM or Debian package.
• The the file deadwood-{version number}/src/Deadwood and place it in /usr/local/sbin
• Take the file server/maradns and place it in /usr/local/sbin
• Take the file tools/duende and place it in /usr/local/sbin
• Create an empty directory called /etc/maradns
• Create a dwood3rc file. This file only needs to be three lines long on systems with a /dev/urandom file.

  Here is a sample dwood3rc file:

  	ipv4_bind_addresses = "127.0.0.1"
  	chroot_dir = "/etc/maradns"
  	recursive_acl = "127.0.0.1"
  

  This dwood3rc file says that MaraDNS will have the ip "127.0.0.1" (this is the bind_address), run from the directory /etc/maradns (the chroot_dir value), and only allow the ip "127.0.0.1" to make recursive queries (the recursive_acl value).
• Place the dwood3rc file in the location /etc/dwood3rc on your system.
• Run Deadwood as a non-daemon:

  	/usr/local/sbin/Deadwood
  

  Since Deadwood needs to bind to a privileged port (port 53), it needs to start up running as root. Deadwood is designed with security in mind, and will drop root privileges before being visible to the public internet.
• Test Deadwood in another window or virtual terminal

  	dig @127.0.0.1 www.yahoo.com
  

• In order to make the duende daemonizing tool usable, create a directory named /etc/maradns/logger/

  	mkdir /etc/maradns/logger
  

• If this works, make Deadwood run as a daemon:

  	/usr/local/sbin/duende /usr/local/sbin/Deadwood
  

  duende is a tool that daemonizes maradns; the daemonizer is a separate program.
• If this all works, install MaraDNS and Deadwood:

  	make install
  

It is also possible to set up the program "maradns" as an authoritative name server:

• Here is the MaraRC file:

  	ipv4_bind_addresses = "127.0.0.1"
  	chroot_dir = "/etc/maradns"
  	csv2 = {}
  	csv2["example.com."] = "db.example.com"
  

• Have a zone file named db.example.com in the chroot_dir (/etc/maradns above) that looks like this:

  example.com. 10.1.2.3
  

  (Yes, experienced DNS admins, you can have SOA, NS, MX, SRV, and any other kind of DNS data stored in a csv2 zone file. Read the csv2 man page for details)
• Queries for example.com will resolve to 10.1.2.3
• Any other name.example.com query will return a "this host does not exist" DNS reply.