jarl/CHANGELOG.md

Changelog

All notable changes to Jarl are documented here. The format follows Keep a Changelog, and versions follow Semantic Versioning.

[Unreleased]

Added

• scripts/testenv.sh: turns a fresh Debian/Ubuntu machine into a test bed. It installs BIND and the build tools (Go from go.dev), writes a hand-made style configuration with internal and external views, a split-horizon zone (example.com or JARL_TEST_ZONE) and a reverse zone, starts named and prints the steps to install Jarl and adopt the configuration (docs/development.md).

[0.1.0] - 2026-10-09

The first version.

Added

• Daily database backups: the jarl-backup.timer systemd timer (turned on by the Debian package) runs jarld backup, which writes jarl-<UTC time>.db into backup.dir (/var/backups/jarl), checks it with SQLite's integrity check before giving it that name, and deletes backups older than backup.retention (30d) while always keeping the newest backup.keep_at_least (7). Ages come from the names, and only files named like backups are ever deleted. Settings are in the new backup: section of jarl.yaml; the schedule is the timer's. The dashboard and jarl status show the newest backup, and warn when it is older than backup.warn_after (2d) or the last attempt failed. backup.stats also backs up the statistics database.

• jarld restore [FILE | latest]: lists backups, or checks one, shows what it holds next to the current database, and after confirmation replaces the database with it, keeping the current one as jarl.db.before-restore-<time>. It refuses while jarld runs: jarld serve now holds a lock (jarl.db.lock), which also stops two jarlds from using the same database. docs/operations.md explains restoring.

• Warnings before API tokens expire, from 14 days ahead: on the dashboard, in token lists ("soon", "expired"), once a day in jarld's log, and from the jarl CLI on stderr whenever it uses such a token (responses carry a Jarl-Token-Expires header). jarl token list --expiring [WITHIN] lists them.

• jarl zone serials ZONE and the zone page's Name servers tab: ask the zone's other name servers which serial they serve (a primary zone's NS records and also-notify targets, a secondary zone's primaries, with their ports and TSIG keys) and compare it with this server's. Exits with 2 when one is behind or doesn't answer.

• jarl zone delegation ZONE and a button on the Name servers tab: for zones on the internet, checks that the parent zone delegates the zone to the name servers in its NS records, with matching glue, and that each of them serves it. An undelegated (internal-only) zone gets one calm note. Neither check runs unless asked.

• jarld sends Server: Jarl/<version>.

• CLI exit code 2: a check ran and found problems.

• CLI: several servers in one configuration file. Name them (jarl config server add ns1 URL), pick one with -s/--server NAME or JARL_SERVER, set a default with jarl config use, and group them (jarl config group set dns ns1 ns2). A command aimed at a group (or all) is first checked on every server as a dry run and only runs if it succeeds everywhere, so a change one server rejects changes nothing anywhere. Named servers always use their own token.

• Reverse zones for any network: a /32 (or /128) gets a zone that answers for just that address, and a network between octet (or nibble) boundaries, such as a /22, is covered by several zones (four /24s) that are created together, from the CLI (jarl zone create 10.0.8.0/22) and the web UI. Networks smaller than a /24 explain that they belong in the enclosing /24's zone.

• docs/operations.md: setting up a secondary server with its own jarld.

• A local unix socket, /run/jarl/jarl.sock (socket in jarl.yaml). Requests on it from root or jarld's own user need no token and act as an administrator (the kernel's SO_PEERCRED says who is connecting); anyone else must send a token. The jarl CLI uses it when no server is configured, or with -s local, so sudo jarl status works on the server with nothing set up, and losing every token or password never locks root out. Changes are audited under the system user's name via socket. The systemd unit creates /run/jarl (0750).

• Jarl is released under the MIT License (LICENSE), which is installed with the docs and is the Debian package's copyright file.

• Debian packages: make deb builds, with only dpkg-deb (no root) and for the host or any other architecture (DEB_ARCH=arm64), jarl (the server: jarld, its units and docs) and jarl-cli (the jarl CLI, its completion and the ACME hooks), which jarl depends on. jarl-cli has no scripts, so it can go on any machine you manage Jarl from. Installing jarl creates the jarl user and directories and an example /etc/jarl/jarl.yaml; upgrades restart a running jarld and never touch /etc/jarl/jarl.yaml; removing it stops jarld, and even a purge keeps Jarl's database and the files named uses.

• Releases from Gitea Actions: pushing a v<version> tag runs .gitea/workflows/release.yml, which tests, builds and publishes a Gitea release (the CHANGELOG section as notes; the tarballs, the CLI for Linux, macOS and Windows, the .debs and SHA256SUMS), and uploads the .debs for amd64 and arm64 to the Gitea Debian registry, so servers install and upgrade Jarl with apt. make cli-dist builds the standalone CLI files; scripts/gitea-release.sh publishes. docs/development.md has the setup (a runner and a RELEASE_TOKEN secret), docs/install.md the apt source.

• Bash completion for jarl and jarld, installed by make install and the Debian package. Besides commands and flags, it completes server and group names from the CLI configuration, zone, view, ACL, TSIG key and user names from the server, and record types.

• make dist tarballs include the completion scripts (completion/).

• Token rotation: jarl token rotate, the Rotate button in the web UI and POST /api/v1/tokens/{id}/rotate give a token a new secret while it keeps its ID, name, user and grants. The old secret stops at once or after a grace period of up to 7 days (--grace), during which jarld logs who still uses it. A token that expires gets its lifetime again. --save writes the new secret where the CLI got the old one (its configuration or --token @FILE), --write FILE to any file, and --current picks the token the CLI runs with, so a restricted token can renew itself. jarl token list shows when a token was last rotated.

• An endpoint for lego's httpreq DNS provider (/api/v1/acme/httpreq/present and /cleanup), so lego and Traefik can publish DNS-01 challenges with only environment variables, without the jarl CLI. lego's username and API token arrive as HTTP Basic auth, which is accepted on these routes only. Off by default (acme.httpreq.enabled), and HTTPS-only by default: jarld's own TLS, or a trusted proxy that says so with X-Forwarded-Proto or Forwarded. Plain HTTP can be allowed from loopback only (allow_loopback_http) or everywhere (require_https: false). GET /api/v1/acme/httpreq shows how jarld sees a request, to check a proxy setup. jarl acme and the endpoint share their code (internal/acme).

• Trusted proxies may also send the standard Forwarded: proto=https header. When a proxy header lists several values, the last one (added by the nearest proxy) counts.

• lego support: contrib/lego/jarl-lego.sh is a program for lego's exec DNS provider that publishes DNS-01 challenges through jarl acme, including challenge names reached through a CNAME (docs/acme.md).

• docs/concepts.md: what each zone type does, what to enter as a new zone's name servers (and when glue addresses are needed), how reverse zones map to networks, and why dynamic updates give way to API tokens.

• A logo: a bearded Viking jarl in blue and white, whose crown holds a DNS tree (a root node and its branches). The master is artwork/logo.png; scripts/logo.py traces it into vector paths (assets/logo.svg, 6 KB, and assets/logo.js). It is shown on the login page, links home in the top left of the web UI, and is the favicon. The UI draws it inline, so it appears together with the page.

• The login page shows an angular, Norse-style "JARL" wordmark drawn as SVG paths (assets/brand.js) above a rule with a "DNS" node; it follows the light and dark themes. The header beside the logo shows the same letters, without the rule, so the UI needs no web font.

• The README opens with the login page's banner, the logo above the wordmark (artwork/banner.svg, built by scripts/banner.py from the web UI's own logo and wordmark, with light and dark colors).

• Web UI: wherever an address match list is entered (server, view and zone options such as allow-query or allow-transfer, view match lists, ACL elements) the existing ACLs, TSIG keys and built-in names are offered as one-click suggestions, and names that don't exist are flagged as you type.

• Query statistics (off by default; stats in jarl.yaml, docs/stats.md). When enabled, Jarl adds a loopback statistics channel and a response log to named's configuration (merged into existing logging and statistics-channels statements) and switches response logging with rndc responselog. jarld aggregates named's counters and the log into a separate SQLite database: per-minute, hourly and daily counters (queries, result codes, record types, views, zones, cache hits, upstream latency, DNSSEC) and hourly and daily top lists (names, clients, NXDOMAIN and SERVFAIL names, refused clients), each with its own retention. Clients can be anonymized or excluded. It is shown on a new Statistics page in the web UI (KPI tiles, queries and failed answers over time, a weekday x hour heatmap, top lists and breakdowns, each chart with a table view), in jarl stats status|summary|top|timeline|heatmap|breakdown, and in the API under /api/v1/stats/, behind the new stats permission. Works with the bind9 packages of Debian 13 and Ubuntu 26.04.

• At startup jarld brings named's configuration up to date with jarl.yaml settings that affect it (such as statistics), through the usual checked pipeline. Files changed by hand are never overwritten.

• jarld daemon: REST API (/api/v1) and embedded web UI, with SQLite as the source of truth for the whole BIND configuration. Runs under systemd (Type=notify, sandboxed, unprivileged jarl user in group bind). SIGHUP and certificate file changes reload TLS.

• Configuration model: views (ordered, match-clients/destinations, recursive-only), ACLs (nested, negation, keys, reference tracking with rename and delete protection), TSIG keys (kept in a separate keys.conf, never in diffs), zones of every type (primary, secondary, stub, static-stub, forward, mirror, hint, redirect, in-view), reverse zones from a CIDR, records of every type, options at server, view, zone and top-level scope, and defaults for new zones.

• BIND 9.20 option catalog: all 353 statements with grammar, allowed scopes, value kinds, deprecation status and ARM descriptions, used for validation and by the UI's option editor.

• Changesets: immediate one-operation changes by default; staging into named changesets (?changeset=, X-Jarl-Changeset, --changeset), batches (POST /apply, jarl apply -f), dry runs, previews with diffs, and revert of applied changesets. Optimistic locking with object versions.

• Apply pipeline: whole-configuration validation, rendering, named-checkconf -z and named-checkzone in a staging directory, atomic install, rndc reconfig and per-zone reload, verification with rndc zonestatus, and automatic rollback when named doesn't load the change. Automatic serials (date, increment or unixtime policy, RFC 1982), bumped only when DNS data changes. Drift detection for files changed outside Jarl.

• Validation: CNAME/DNAME rules, NS/MX/SRV targets, glue and delegations, RRset TTL consistency, BIND 9.20 RRset/type limits, SPF/DMARC sanity, ACL/key references and cycles, option syntax and scope, and security lints (open resolver, open zone transfers, dynamic updates on managed zones).

• Records: TXT entered as plain text (automatic quoting and 255-byte splitting), relative and absolute names with detection of doubled origins, PTR records kept in step with A/AAAA (ptr), RRset replace, delete by match, zone file import (merge or replace).

• Import and adoption: jarld import reads an existing named.conf tree and zone files (comments, $INCLUDE, $GENERATE, legacy master/slave spellings); jarld adopt switches named to Jarl's configuration with a backup and automatic fallback.

• Authentication: web logins with argon2id passwords, sessions (HttpOnly, SameSite=Strict) and CSRF tokens, rate limiting per user and IP; hashed API tokens (jarl_...) with optional expiry.

• Permissions: granular grants (resource × read/write, filtered by zone, view, record name pattern and type), roles (readonly, dns-editor, operator, acme), tokens restricted to a subset of their user's rights, administrators.

• Audit log of logins, changes, users, tokens and secret reveals, with user, token, IP and outcome, searchable and written to the journal.

• Web UI: dashboard, zones and records with inline editing and pending markers, views, ACLs, TSIG keys, the option editor, review and apply, history with revert, audit log, users, account and tokens, search. Review mode by default, with an "apply immediately" switch.

• jarl CLI: zones, records, views, ACLs, TSIG keys, options, settings, changesets, batches, history, users, tokens, audit, search, status, check and resync. Table, JSON and YAML output, and documented exit codes.

• ACME DNS-01: jarl acme set|unset, certbot hooks (jarl acme certbot-auth|certbot-cleanup), an acme.sh DNS API hook (contrib/acme.sh/dns_jarl.sh), automatic zone and view discovery, idempotent retries, and --follow-cname / --resolver for a dedicated ACME zone.

• Operations: jarld backup (online), jarld resync, jarld check, jarld render, local user recovery commands, audit retention.

• Packaging: Makefile (build, test, e2e, install, dist), systemd unit, sysusers.d and tmpfiles.d files, example configuration (jarld config --example).

• Tests: unit tests for every package, integration tests against the real named 9.20 (checkers, reload and rollback, import and adopt), and an end-to-end script (scripts/e2e.sh) that drives every CLI command against a running named.

• Documentation: concepts, install and adoption, configuration, CLI, API, permissions, ACME, validation, operations and development guides, and a split-DNS guide for adding views to a server that has none.

Changed

• Web UI: the review/live switch is a small "Review edits" / "Live edits" button in the header, and the bar below it only appears while there are pending changes.

• TSIG keys: the name help no longer calls xfer-key a domain name (any letters, digits, hyphens and dots will do; both servers must use the same name), and the keys page points to restricted API tokens for giving scripts or people limited access to zones and records.

• Web UI, new zone dialog: choose Domain or Reverse zone. For a reverse zone you give the network (10.10.0.0/24, 2001:db8:1::/48) and the zone name is generated. Either way the dialog shows the exact zone name it will create and explains problems before submitting: an address or URL instead of a name, a host-like name such as www.example.com, a zone that already exists in the view, a child or parent of an existing zone, and networks that don't follow the octet or nibble boundaries.

• Web UI, record form: after adding a record every field is cleared except the type, and the cursor returns to the name. A "Will add:" line shows the record exactly as it will be stored, with warnings for unqualified names (e.g. a CNAME to readthedocs.io without the final dot). In reverse zones the form asks for the address, defaults to PTR, offers the host names of A/AAAA records with that address, warns about a second PTR for an address, and the record list shows each record's address.

• Reverse zones: a record name can be given as an address (10.10.0.20) in the API and CLI too, and a PTR target without a final dot that contains a dot (nas.adbraun.lol) is read as the full host name (with a warning); a bare label is refused.

• jarl resync / jarld resync refuse to overwrite files that were changed outside Jarl unless --force is given, as documented. Before, they always overwrote them.

Fixed

• The logo popped in after the page: it was an 880 KB SVG wrapping a 1254-pixel PNG, downloaded in full on every page load. It is now traced into 6 KB of vector paths and drawn inline. Static files also get an ETag, so reloads revalidate them with 304 answers instead of downloading them again.

• jarl token create --save stored the token at the top level of the CLI configuration even when a named server was selected; it now goes into that server's entry.

• The web UI showed future times, such as token expiry dates, as "just now"; they now read "in 29 days".

• The dashboard's "Pending changes (1 open)" counted empty changesets (and other users'), so the Changes page then showed none. It now counts your own changesets that contain changes, and the status API's open_changesets only counts non-empty ones. In review mode, a draft created for an edit that the server rejects is discarded instead of being left open and empty.

• Under the shipped systemd unit (RestrictSUIDSGID=yes), the first zone in a new view failed with "chmod /var/lib/bind/jarl/VIEW: operation not permitted": setting the setgid bit on the new directory is refused there. Jarl now falls back to the permission bits, so the directory is group-writable for named, and only changes the mode when it needs to.

• Web UI: the "Jarl 0.1.0" brand link no longer underlines the gap between the name and the version on hover.

• Web UI: creating a zone from the dashboard's "New zone" link no longer opens the dialog a second time.

• Warnings noticed while parsing record data (a name read as absolute) were lost before reaching the result; they are shown again.

• The negative-caching warning now uses the effective negative TTL, which is the smaller of the SOA minimum and the zone's default TTL (RFC 2308). It explains the real effect (new names can stay invisible to resolvers that already asked) and gives the command that fixes it. Before, it fired on the SOA minimum alone and wrongly blamed BIND's resolver cap.

• Problems printed by jarld check show zone names without the trailing dot.

• jarl now shows the warnings a change introduces when it is applied or staged, not only on dry runs.

• jarl check and jarl resync no longer print named-checkconf's routine "loaded serial" lines, only its errors and warnings.

• jarl zone list showed only primary zones: zone create's default --type primary leaked into the list filter through a shared variable. Hint, secondary, forward and other zones are listed again.

• named-checkconf and named-checkzone output is classified by the tools' exit code. Their warnings (e.g. both "recursion no;" and "allow-recursion" active) were shown as errors. They are now shown as warnings in the CLI, jarld check and the web UI.

• The zone_outside_view error says how to fix it (--adopt-zones).

• The end-to-end test starts named with -f like the Debian unit; with -g, named sends all logging to stderr.