My laptop (M1 Pro, macOS 15.3.2) is connected to a dual stack network via Wi-Fi. The home.arpa. domain is supplied as a search domain via both DHCPv4 (options 15 and 119) and DHCPv6 (option 24). "Details…" for the network connection in System Settings show this domain under the DNS tab.
The laptop uses a Forwarding DNS Resolver of my router, which in turn forwards requests for home.arpa. (including subdomains) to a local DNS server (CoreDNS) which is authoritative for this zone.
The DNS server is configured via the following zone file:
$ORIGIN home.arpa.
$TTL 3600
@ IN SOA @ nobody.invalid. (1 3600 1200 604800 3600)
@ NS @
@ AAAA ….1
gateway A ….1
gateway AAAA …::1
b._dns-sd._udp PTR @
lb._dns-sd._udp PTR @
db._dns-sd._udp PTR @
_services._dns-sd._udp PTR _smb._tcp
_smb._tcp PTR Media._smb._tcp
Media._smb._tcp SRV 0 0 445 gateway
Media._smb._tcp TXT ("path=/media" "u=guest")
Output of dig(1) looks like:
$ dig @….1 -t PTR lb._dns-sd._udp.home.arpa.
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 43291
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;lb._dns-sd._udp.home.arpa. IN PTR
;; ANSWER SECTION:
lb._dns-sd._udp.home.arpa. 1993 IN PTR home.arpa.
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
home.arpa. 2771 IN NS home.arpa.
$ dig @….1 -t PTR _services._dns-sd._udp.home.arpa.
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 9057
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;_services._dns-sd._udp.home.arpa. IN PTR
;; ANSWER SECTION:
_services._dns-sd._udp.home.arpa. 3600 IN PTR _smb._tcp.home.arpa.
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
home.arpa. 3600 IN NS home.arpa.
$ dig @….1 -t PTR _smb._tcp.home.arpa.
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 44220
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;_smb._tcp.home.arpa. IN PTR
;; ANSWER SECTION:
_smb._tcp.home.arpa. 3599 IN PTR Media._smb._tcp.home.arpa.
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
home.arpa. 3599 IN NS home.arpa.
$ dig @….1 -t SRV Media._smb._tcp.home.arpa.
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 45878
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;Media._smb._tcp.home.arpa. IN SRV
;; ANSWER SECTION:
media._smb._tcp.home.arpa. 3600 IN SRV 0 0 445 gateway.home.arpa.
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
home.arpa. 3600 IN NS home.arpa.
$ dig @….1 -t A gateway.home.arpa.
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 2782
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;gateway.home.arpa. IN A
;; ANSWER SECTION:
gateway.home.arpa. 86400 IN A 192.168.99.1
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
home.arpa. 3578 IN NS home.arpa.
$ dig @….1 -t AAAA gateway.home.arpa.
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 17297
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;gateway.home.arpa. IN AAAA
;; ANSWER SECTION:
gateway.home.arpa. 3600 IN AAAA fd6f:9784:5753::1
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
home.arpa. 3600 IN NS home.arpa.
Output of dns-sd(1):
/usr/bin/dns-sd -test
…
Testing for error returns when various strings are > 63 bytes: PASSED
Running basic API input range tests with various pointer parameters set to NULL:
Basic API input range tests: PASSED
$ dns-sd -m -F
Looking for recommended browsing domains:
DATE: ---Fri 11 Apr 2025---
8:50:17.846 ...STARTING...
Timestamp Recommended Browsing domain
8:50:17.847 Added (More) local
8:50:17.847 Added arpa
- > home
$ dns-sd -B _smb._tcp home.arpa.
Browsing for _smb._tcp.home.arpa.
DATE: ---Fri 11 Apr 2025---
8:59:10.044 ...STARTING...
$ dns-sd -L Media _smb._tcp home.arpa.
Lookup Media._smb._tcp.home.arpa.
DATE: ---Fri 11 Apr 2025---
9:15:53.328 ...STARTING...
$ dns-sd -Q _smb._tcp.home.arpa. PTR IN
DATE: ---Fri 11 Apr 2025---
9:16:52.208 ...STARTING...
Timestamp A/R Flags IF Name Type Class Rdata
9:16:52.210 Add 40000002 0 _smb._tcp.home.arpa. PTR IN 0.0.0.0 No Such Record
9:16:52.222 Add 2 0 _smb._tcp.home.arpa. PTR IN 0.0.0.0 No Such Record
Similarly, when I open Finder->Network I see home.arpa but it's empty. Of interest is that on the DNS server side I see the following requests being made:
2025-04-11 09:03:15 container,info,debug [INFO] […]:56541 - 21555 "SOA IN _afpovertcp._tcp.home.arpa. udp 44 false 512" NXDOMAIN qr,aa,rd 112 0.000755089s
2025-04-11 09:03:15 container,info,debug [INFO] […]:56077 - 58266 "SOA IN _smb._tcp.home.arpa. udp 37 false 512" NOERROR qr,aa,rd 105 0.001012632s
2025-04-11 09:03:15 container,info,debug [INFO] […]:45274 - 45976 "SOA IN _rfb._tcp.home.arpa. udp 37 false 512" NXDOMAIN qr,aa,rd 105 0.000762339s
2025-04-11 09:03:15 container,info,debug [INFO] […]:54387 - 32090 "SOA IN _adisk._tcp.home.arpa. udp 39 false 512" NXDOMAIN qr,aa,rd 107 0.001058132s
2025-04-11 09:03:15 container,info,debug [INFO] […]:35855 - 51155 "SOA IN _tcp.home.arpa. udp 32 false 512" NOERROR qr,aa,rd 100 0.000664963s
I suppose that an attempt to locate services is made but it's unsuccessful and I'm not sure why.
What further debugging can I attempt?