avahi-daemon(8)

NAME
avahi-daemon - The Avahi mDNS/DNS-SD daemon

SYNOPSIS
avahi-daemon [options]

avahi-daemon --kill

avahi-daemon --reload

avahi-daemon --check

DESCRIPTION
The Avahi mDNS/DNS-SD daemon implements Apple's Zeroconf architecture (also known as "Rendezvous" or "Bonjour"). The daemon registers local IP addresses and static services using mDNS/DNS-SD and provides two IPC APIs for local programs to make use of the mDNS record cache the avahi-daemon maintains. First there is the so called "simple protocol" which is used exclusively by avahi-dnsconfd (a daemon which configures unicast DNS servers using server info published via mDNS) and nss-mdns (a libc NSS plugin, providing name resolution via mDNS). Finally there is the D-Bus interface which provides a rich object oriented interface to D-Bus enabled applications.

Upon startup avahi-daemon interprets its configuration file /usr/local/etc/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf and reads XML fragments from /usr/local/etc/avahi/services/*.service which may define static DNS-SD services. If you enable publish-resolv-conf-dns-servers in avahi-daemon.conf the file /etc/resolv.conf will be read, too.

OPTIONS

-f | --file= FILE
    Specify the configuration file to read. (default: /usr/local/etc/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf)

-D | --daemonize
    Daemonize after startup. Implies --syslog.

-s | --syslog
    Log to syslog instead of STDERR. Implied by --daemonize.

--debug
    Increase verbosity to debug level.

--no-rlimits
    Don't enforce resource limits as specified in the configuration file. (See setrlimit(2) for more information)

--no-drop-root
    Don't drop root privileges after startup and don't require daemon to be started as root. We recommend not to use this option.

--no-chroot
    Don't chroot(2) the daemon. This option is only available when compiled with chroot() support.

--no-proc-title
    Don't change the process name while running. Unless this option is specified avahi-daemon will reflect its current state and the selected host name in the process title.

-k | --kill
    Kill an already running avahi-daemon. (equivalent to sending a SIGTERM)

-r | --reload
    Tell an already running avahi-daemon to reread /etc/resolv.conf (in case you enabled publish-resolv-conf-dns-servers in avahi-daemon.conf) the files from /usr/local/etc/avahi/services/. Please note that this will not reload the /usr/local/etc/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf. (equivalent to sending a SIGHUP)

-c | --check
    Return 0 as return code when avahi-daemon is already running.

-h | --help
    Show help

-v | --version
    Show version information

FILES
/usr/local/etc/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf: the default configuration file for avahi-daemon, avahi-daemon.conf(5) for more information.

/usr/local/etc/avahi/hosts: additional static hostname mappings to publish in mDNS, see avahi.hosts(5) for more information.

/usr/local/etc/avahi/services/*.service: static service definitions, see avahi.service(5) for more information.

SIGNALS
SIGINT, SIGTERM: avahi-daemon will shutdown. (Same as --kill).

SIGHUP: avahi-daemon will reload unicast DNS server data from /etc/resolv.conf and static service definitions from /usr/local/etc/avahi/services/. (Same as --reload)

SIGUSR1: avahi-daemon will dump local and remote cached resource record data to syslog.

AUTHORS
The Avahi Developers <avahi (at) lists (dot) freedesktop (dot) org>; Avahi is available from http://avahi.org/

SEE ALSO
avahi-daemon.conf(5), avahi.hosts(5), avahi.service(5), avahi-dnsconfd(8), avahi-set-host-name(1)

http://avahi.org/wiki/AvahiAndUnicastDotLocal documents the problems when using Avahi in a unicast DNS zone .local.

COMMENTS
This man page was written using xml2man(1) by Oliver Kurth.