hoelzro / lua-ares

Lua binding to c-ares

lua-ares - Lua bindings for c-ares

c-ares is an asynchronous DNS resolver library for C - lua-ares is a Lua binding to this library.

Example

local ares = require 'ares' -- also calls ares_library_init()
local sock = require 'socket'

local r = ares.init() -- create a resolver object
local count = 0
local domain = 'example.com'
local function make_reply_handler(parser)
  return function(status, timeouts, result)
    count = count + 1
    local reply = parser(result)
    print(reply.addr_list[1])
  end
end

-- fire off queries here
r:query(domain, ares.class.IN, ares.type.A, make_reply_handler(ares.parse_a_reply))
r:query(domain, ares.class.IN, ares.type.AAAA, make_reply_handler(ares.parse_aaaa_reply))

while count < 2 do
  print 'waiting...'
  sock.sleep(1)
  local rfds, wfds, nfd = r:fds()
  -- you can't use socket select here, since it takes socket objects
  r:process(rfds, wfds) -- handle any responses that have come in
end

Functions

ares.init(opt_options)

Creates and returns a resolver object using ares_init. opt_options is optional; if provided, ares_init_options will be used with the given options. If invalid options are specified, error will be used to throw a hard error. If resolver creation fails for some reason, nil and an error message will be returned.

ares.parse_a_reply(bytes)

Parses the bytes given to the DNS response handler as if they are a response for an A query. Returns a table with information on the host, which has the following fields to mirror the information provided by struct hostent:

• name - The host's name (usually what you provided to the query method)
• aliases - Other names for the host
• addrtype - "inet"
• addr_list - A table of IPv4 addresses.

If the parse fails, nil and an error message are returned.

ares.parse_aaaa_reply(bytes)

Parses the bytes given to the DNS response handler as if they are a response for an AAAA query. Returns a table with information on the host, which has the following fields to mirror the information provided by struct hostent:

• name - The host's name (usually what you provided to the query method)
• aliases - Other names for the host
• addrtype - "inet6"
• addr_list - A table of IPv6 addresses.

If the parse fails, nil and an error message are returned.

Resolver Methods

resolver:query(domain, class, type, reply_handler)

Sends a query to the DNS resolver. class is a value from ares.class; type is a value from ares.type. reply_handler is a function that receives a status, timeout count, and bytes from the DNS reply. status is a value that indicates the status or failure of the query; timeouts indicates how many times the query timed out, and the bytes are raw bytes that are meant to be decoded with a parser function such as parse_a_reply.

Since status is currently just a raw number value, I wouldn't rely on it until the API for it gets more refined.

resolver:fds()

Returns a table of readable file descriptors, a table of writable file descriptors, and the max file descriptor for use in functions like select.

resolver:process(read_fds, write_fds)

Processes the results from queries using the file descriptors in read_fds and write_fds, potentially calling the reply handler if the query has been completed.

Constants

ares.class and ares.type contain constants for DNS classes and query types, respectively.

To-do

Unbound Functions

The following functions have no binding - contributions adding them are welcome!

• ares_cancel
• ares_create_query
• ares_dup
• ares_expand_name
• ares_expand_string
• ares_get_servers
• ares_get_servers_ports
• ares_gethostbyaddr
• ares_gethostbyname
• ares_gethostbyname_file
• ares_getnameinfo
• ares_getsock
• ares_inet_ntop
• ares_inet_pton
• ares_mkquery
• ares_parse_a_reply
• ares_parse_aaaa_reply
• ares_parse_mx_reply
• ares_parse_naptr_reply
• ares_parse_ns_reply
• ares_parse_ptr_reply
• ares_parse_soa_reply
• ares_parse_srv_reply
• ares_parse_txt_reply
• ares_parse_txt_reply_ext
• ares_process_fd
• ares_save_options
• ares_search
• ares_send
• ares_set_local_dev
• ares_set_servers
• ares_set_servers_csv
• ares_set_servers_ports
• ares_set_servers_ports_csv
• ares_set_socket_callback
• ares_set_socket_configure_callback
• ares_set_sortlist
• ares_timeout
• ares_version

The following functions are not bound, but don't need a binding because of the nature of Lua:

• ares_destroy
• ares_destroy_options
• ares_strerror
• ares_free_data
• ares_free_hostent
• ares_free_string
• ares_library_cleanup
• ares_library_init
• ares_library_init_mem
• ares_library_initialized

No constants table for query statuses

The query statuses provided to the reply handler function used with resolver:query are just the raw number values provided to the handler on the C side - I need to add a lookup table to be able to handle these values, or perhaps just pass string values to the reply handler. I wouldn't rely on the status value until this functionality gets fleshed out.

Unsupported options in the init function

Currently only the servers option works for init - the groundwork for fleshing out other options exists, though. Contributions adding support for new options are most welcome!

Parser functions don't return TTL information

ares.parse_a_reply and friends should return TTL data, but they currently don't. Adding it as a second return value won't break existing code.

Resolve crappy coding

• option_add_servers - the servers array on the C side is allocated as a userdata, and we have no guarantee the GC won't clean it up before we're done with it.
• Use ares_inet_* functions for portability.
• Handle parsing errors in server option to init function.
• Handle other optmask mask fields not reflected in ares_options struct's fields.
• Handle option errors in init.
• Handle IP address parsing errors in push_hostent.
• Add GC cleanup for resolvers. ** Make sure in-flight queries are handled properly.
• Clean up callback data when the query reply handler is called.
• Handle reply handler errors.
• Figure out global/coroutine state when sending lua_State to C-side reply handler.
• Think about when/if to call library cleanup routines.

License

lua-ares is released under the same license as c-ares and Lua - the MIT/X license, a copy of which has been included under COPYING.