dnsmasq Web Gui

This is a very simple project written in Python and React in order to manage the dnsmasq hosts file.

There are two folders:

• dns-backend: contains the API written in python using Flask framework, and some others tools to sync the DNS hosts file.
• dns-webgui folder contains the web gui itself. The Webgui is written in typescript using React Hooks.

Web-Gui

Actually the web-gui it is a very simple React application. It present all hosts in browser using a table with classic web editing button.

In order to use the Web-Gui, first of all you need to compile React application using yarn build command. Then put the compiled application (files created in build directory) on the root directory or other directory of WebServer.

Dns-Backend

The back-end is a Python application that use flask framework. The dns-backend uses an sqlite3 database file in order to keep the list of DNS names (actually only A and AAAA records). All editing operation are performed on hosts.db sqlite3 database file. The hosts file of dnsmasq is never directly updated.

Tools and sync service

Inside dns-backend folder, there are some others scripts and systemd descriptors files. These files are used in order to update the dnsmasq hosts file with modifications made on web-gui.

• dnsapplyconfig.sh it is a bash script used to apply the new configuration and restart dnsmasq service. This script will generate a new hosts file for dnsmasq, then copy the new file on DNS server using scp, and then using ssh restart the service. You have to edit this script and change the line dns_host="dns.example.it" using the hostname or ip address of your DNS server. Also it is required a passwordless ssh, so that the computer where the script runs can connect to DNS server without password.

• dnsmasq-genhosts.py this python script is used by dnsapplyconfig.sh in order to create a new hosts file from the sqlite3 hosts.db database.

• dnsmonitor.path: it is a systemd descriptor path used to keep monitored the /var/www/cgi-bin/dnsapi/hosts.db for modifications.

• dnsmonitor.service: it is the systemd descriptor service triggered by dnsmonitor.path when a change to hosts.db occurs. This service will run the dnsapplyconfig.sh script in order to update the dns configuration.

Compilation

Here a very short guide on how to compile the front-end

git clone https://github.com/balucio/dnsmasq-webgui.git
cd dnsmasq-webgui/dns-webgui
# this will install the dependency
yarn install
# this will build the compiled web application, take a break because it requires time
yarn build

For latest yarn version you should add :

export NODE_OPTIONS=--openssl-legacy-provider
npx update-browserslist-db@latest

see Stackoverflow

At end you should find the compiled application in build directory, you can test it using

DANGEROUSLY_DISABLE_HOST_CHECK=true yarn start