Building from source

go install github.com/dnspatch/dnspatch/cmd/dnspatch@latest

Requires Go 1.27 or newer. A plain go build gives the same daemon as the dnspatch image and binaries: every retriever and provider except three heavy ones (rfc2136, yandexcloud and namecheap), the ping_url hook, and no notifier backend. To get a smaller binary, or the plugins of the -full one, choose what goes in with build tags. This matters where size does: a Raspberry Pi, or a router running OpenWrt.

Build tags

Every plugin has a build tag named after its type, and there are two more:

• full compiles in every plugin, what the -full image and binaries are. It wins over dnspatch_none.
• dnspatch_none leaves out every retriever and provider. Add the tags of the ones you need to bring those back, and nothing else is compiled in.

What a plugin's tag does depends on whether the plain build has the plugin. For a plugin it has, the tag matters only together with dnspatch_none. For one it leaves out, the tag adds that plugin to the plain build: rfc2136, yandexcloud and namecheap among the providers, and every notifier backend (redis, rabbitmq, mqtt; see Notifications). They are left out because the libraries they need make the binary larger, by 0.1 to 1.5 MB each. The table at the end of this page says which plugin is which, and ping_url (see Monitoring) is always there.

# Only the ipify retriever and the Cloudflare provider.
go build -tags "dnspatch_none,ipify,cloudflare" -ldflags "-s -w" -o dnspatch ./cmd/dnspatch

# Every plugin, what the -full image is.
go build -tags full -o dnspatch ./cmd/dnspatch

# The plain build plus the rfc2136 provider and the redis notifier.
go build -tags "rfc2136,redis" -o dnspatch ./cmd/dnspatch

A build that lacks a plugin your configuration names refuses to start and says which tag to add, for example provider type "cloudflare" is not compiled into this build: rebuild with the "cloudflare" build tag. Every plugin a configuration uses must be in the build, so the list of tags is easiest to write from the type lines of your dnspatch.toml. The config builder does this for you: it lists the tags, the Docker image and the build command for the plugins you chose.

Notes on the tags

• nicru, noip, dyn and dynu are dyndns2 with the update URL filled in, so they share its code, and the type dyndns2 is registered along with any of them. It costs nothing, since the code is in the binary anyway.
• Expect a saving of a megabyte or two, not a tenfold one: the HTTP and TLS code of the standard library, which nearly every plugin needs, is most of the binary. For amd64 with -ldflags "-s -w", the plain build is about 7.4 MB, dnspatch_none,ipify,cloudflare about 7.1 MB, and the -full one about 10.9 MB. Measure the build you care about with ls -l.

Cross-compiling

Cross-compile with GOOS and GOARCH. Keep CGO_ENABLED=0, so that the binary is static.

Target	Settings
Raspberry Pi, 64-bit system	GOARCH=arm64
Raspberry Pi, 32-bit Raspberry Pi OS	GOARCH=arm GOARM=7
OpenWrt, MediaTek or older Atheros	GOOS=linux GOARCH=mipsle GOMIPS=softfloat
OpenWrt, big-endian MIPS	GOOS=linux GOARCH=mips GOMIPS=softfloat
OpenWrt, ARM	GOOS=linux GOARCH=arm or arm64

opkg print-architecture on the router tells which one it is.

Docker build argument

The Docker image takes the same tags as a build argument:

docker build --build-arg TAGS=dnspatch_none,ipify,cloudflare -t dnspatch-mini .
docker build --build-arg TAGS=full -t dnspatch-full .

Tags of all built-in plugins

Type	Kind	Build tag	In a plain build
mqtt	notifier	mqtt	no (full brings it too)
rabbitmq	notifier	rabbitmq	no (full brings it too)
redis	notifier	redis	no (full brings it too)
shoutrrr	notifier	shoutrrr	no (full brings it too)
beget	provider	beget	yes
cloudflare	provider	cloudflare	yes
duckdns	provider	duckdns	yes
dyn	provider	dyn	yes
dyndns2	provider	dyndns2	yes
dynu	provider	dynu	yes
namecheap	provider	namecheap	no (full brings it too)
nicru	provider	nicru	yes
noip	provider	noip	yes
regru	provider	regru	yes
rfc2136	provider	rfc2136	no (full brings it too)
selectel	provider	selectel	yes
timeweb	provider	timeweb	yes
yandexcloud	provider	yandexcloud	no (full brings it too)
2ip	retriever	2ip	yes
icanhazip	retriever	icanhazip	yes
identme	retriever	identme	yes
ifconfigco	retriever	ifconfigco	yes
interface	retriever	interface	yes
ipify	retriever	ipify	yes

This table is generated by go generate ./... from the plugin packages, so it lists what the code has: a plugin added under plugins/ appears in it, and gets its tag, with no other change.