p .Nm listens on UDP port 5353 for Multicast DNS Query packets. When it receives a query for which it knows an answer, .Nm issues the appropriate Multicast DNS Reply packet.
p .Nm also performs Unicast and Multicast DNS Queries on behalf of client processes, and maintains a cache of the replies.
p .Nm has no user-specifiable command-line argument, and users should not run .Nm manually.
p .Ss LOGGING There are several methods with which to examine .Nm Ns 's internal state for debugging and diagnostic purposes. The syslog(1) logging levels map as follows:
p .Dl Error - Error messages .Dl Warning - Client-initiated operations .Dl Notice - Sleep proxy operations .Dl Info - Informational messages
p By default, only log level Error is logged.
p A SIGUSR1 signal toggles additional logging, with Warning and Notice enabled by default:
p .Dl % sudo killall -USR1 mDNSResponder
p Once this logging is enabled, users can additionally use syslog(1) to change the log filter for the process. For example, to enable log levels Emergency - Debug:
p .Dl % sudo syslog -c mDNSResponder -d
p A SIGUSR2 signal toggles packet logging:
p .Dl % sudo killall -USR2 mDNSResponder
p A SIGINFO signal will dump a snapshot summary of the internal state to
a /var/log/system.log Ns :
p .Dl % sudo killall -INFO mDNSResponder .Sh FILES
a /usr/sbin/mDNSResponder \" Pathname
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr mDNS 1
p For information on Multicast DNS, see
a http://www.multicastdns.org/
p For information on DNS Service Discovery, see
a http://www.dns-sd.org/
p For information on how to use the Multicast DNS and the DNS Service Discovery APIs on Mac OS X and other platforms, see
a http://developer.apple.com/bonjour/
p For the source code to .Nm , see
a http://developer.apple.com/darwin/projects/bonjour/
.Sh BUGS
.Nm
bugs are tracked in Apple Radar component "mDNSResponder".
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
daemon first appeared in Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar).
p Also available from the Darwin open source repository (though not officially supported by Apple) are .Nm daemons for other platforms, including Mac OS 9, Microsoft Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Solaris, and other POSIX systems.