mDNS-js

Pure JavaScript/NodeJS mDNS discovery implementation. It's definitely not a full implementation at the current state and it will NOT work in the browser.

The starting inspiration came from https://github.com/GoogleChrome/chrome-app-samples/tree/master/mdns-browser but adapted for node. It's not much left of that now though.

NEW LOCATION

This project was moved into it's own organisation. Please update any git remotes you might have pointing here.

git remote set-url origin https://github.com/mdns-js/node-mdns-js.git

Install by

npm install mdns-js

• If you are running node version < 4.1 you will have to use a version of this library that is below version 0.5.0
• If node is < 6.11 you will have to use a version of this library that is below 1.0.0

Future

It would be great to have a full implementation of mDSN + DNS-SD in pure JS but progress will be slow unless someone is willing to pitch in with pull requests, specifications for wanted functions etc. Also, as you should avoid to have multiple mDNS stacks on a system this might clash with stuff like avahi and bonjour.

example

1var mdns = require('mdns-js');
2//if you have another mdns daemon running, like avahi or bonjour, uncomment following line
3//mdns.excludeInterface('0.0.0.0');
4
5var browser = mdns.createBrowser();
6
7browser.on('ready', function () {
8    browser.discover(); 
9});
10
11browser.on('update', function (data) {
12    console.log('data:', data);
13});

Reporting issues

Please report any issues at https://github.com/mdns-js/node-mdns-js/issues

But please check if there is a similar issue already reported and make a note of which OS and OS version you are running. There is some issues that turn up only on Windows 8.1 but not in Windows 7 for example. And there are differences between Mac and Windows so... please...

Another important thing to know if there is another mdns service running on the same machine. This would be for example Bonjour and Avahi.

Debugging

This library is using the debug module from TJ Holowaychuk and can be used like this.

1DEBUG=mdns:* node examples/simple.js

This will spit out LOTS of information that might be useful. If you have some issues with something where you might want to communicate the contents of a packet (ie create an issue on github) you could limit the debug information to just that.

1DEBUG=mdns:browser:packet node examples/simple.js

Contributing

Pull-request will be gladly accepted.

If possible any api should be as close match to the api of node-mdns but be pragmatic. Look at issue #5.

Please run any existing tests with

npm test

and preferably add more tests.

Before creating a pull-request please run

npm run lint 

This will run jshint as well as jscs that will do some basic syntax and code style checks. Fix any issues befor committing and creating a pull-request.

Look at the .eslintrc file for the details.

License

Apache 2.0. See LICENSE file.

References

• https://github.com/GoogleChrome/chrome-app-samples/tree/master/samples/mdns-browser
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multicast_DNS
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_configuration_networking#Service_discovery
• RFC 6762 - mDNS - http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6762
• RFC 6763 - DNS Based Service Discovery (DNS-SD) - http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6763
• http://www.tcpipguide.com/free/t_DNSMessageHeaderandQuestionSectionFormat.htm

Contributors

• James Sigurðarson, @jamiees2
• Stefan Sauer, @ensonic