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= More about Avahi =
== Details ==
Avahi is an Implementation of the [http://www.dns-sd.org/ DNS Service Discovery] and [http://www.multicastdns.org/ Multicast DNS] specifications for [http://www.zeroconf.org/ Zeroconf] Networking. It uses [http://www.freedesktop.org/Software/dbus D-Bus] for communication between user applications and a system daemon.  The daemon is used to coordinate application efforts in caching replies, necessary to minimize the traffic imposed on networks. 

== Current Status ==
The Avahi mDNS responder is now feature complete implementing all MUSTs and the majority of the SHOULDs of the mDNS/DNS-SD RFCs. It passes all tests in the Apple Bonjour conformance test suite. In addition it supports some nifty things that have never been seen elsewhere like correct mDNS reflection across LAN segments. The mDNS responder is implemented as a C library ("avahi-core") which is embeddable into other applications. 

== Features ==
 * Licensed under [http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/lesser.html LGPL]
 * IPv4 and IPv6 support
 * D-Bus interface
 * Drops all privileges and runs as user "avahi"
 * chroot() support
 * Embeddable mDNS stack (i.e. mDNS stack available as library)
 * Support for loading static service definitions from XML fragments
 * Interface to GLIBC NSS using [http://0pointer.de/lennart/projects/nss-mdns/ nss-mdns]
 * Ability to reflect mDNS traffic between multiple subnets
 * Ability to configure a unicast DNS server automatically from server data published on the LAN
 * Wide area DNS-SD support (read-only for now)  
 * Compatibility libraries implementing a subset of the HOWL and Apple Bonjour APIs

== Distributions ==
Avahi is currently part of the following distributions:
 * [http://www.altlinux.com/ ALT Linux]
 * [http://www.archlinux.org/ ArchLinux]
 * [http://crux.nu/ CRUX]
 * [http://www.debian.org/ Debian GNU/Linux]
 * [http://www.fedoraproject.org Fedora]
 * [http://www.foresightlinux.com/ Foresight Linux]
 * [http://www.freebsd.org/ports/ FreeBSD Ports]
 * [http://www.frugalware.org Frugalware]
 * [http://www.gentoo.org/ Gentoo]
 * [http://www.lunar-linux.org/ Lunar-Linux]
 * [http://www.mandrivalinux.com/ Mandriva]
 * [http://www.momonga-linux.org/ Momonga Linux]
 * [http://www.gnusolaris.org/ Nexenta OS]
 * [http://pld-linux.org/ PLD Linux]
 * [http://www.sabayonlinux.org/ Sabayon Linux]
 * [http://www.novell.com/products/linuxpackages/suselinux/avahi.html SUSE Linux]
 * [http://www.t2-project.org/ T2 SDE]
 * [http://www.ubuntu.com/ Ubuntu Linux]
 * [http://desktop.vidalinux.com/ VLOS]
 * [http://www.zenwalk.org/ Zenwalk Linux]

=== Embedded Distributions ===
 * [http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/ The Ångström Distribution]
 * [http://www.openembedded.org/filebrowser/org.openembedded.dev/packages/avahi OpenEmbedded]
 * [http://openwrt.org/ OpenWRT]
 * [http://www.pfsense.org/ pfSense]

== In The Press ==
Avahi has been subject of several articles in the press:

 * [http://lwn.net/Articles/149036/ Linux Weekly News, August 24, 2005]
 * Issue 03/06 of the German [http://www.linux-magazin.de/ Linux Magazin] features two extensive articles about Avahi (p.64 and p.90)
 * [http://osnews.com/story.php?news_id=12440 OSNews Article #1], [http://osnews.com/story.php?news_id=11628 OSNews Article #2]
 * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avahi_(software) Wikipedia Article]
 * [http://tips.linux.com/tips/06/06/15/2012219.shtml?tid=100 A slightly erroneous Linux.com article]
 * Google Tech-Talks November 2, 2005; [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7398680103951126462&q=Zeroconf Zero Configuration networking with Bonjour] by Dr. Stuart Cheshire (Apple) where he refers to the high quality of Avahi (see 53:00/1:01:15)
 * [http://www.enterprisenetworkingplanet.com/netos/article.php/3618026 Run Zeroconf for Linux in a Snap, Enterprise Networking Planet]

== Security ==

Please visit AvahiSecurity for more information about Avahi security vulnerabilities