Bug#888613: dnsmasq is started with argument -r /var/run/dnsmasq/resolv.conf by default. This configuration file is empty and dnsmasq will not resolve any DNS queries outside of the LAN. Writing localhost to this file and starting dnsmasq again leads to the file becoming empty again. Removing the -r argument makes dnsmasq use /etc/resolv.conf which is set to localhost by the user, since the user knows that there is a DNS server running on localhost. Dnsmasq should be usable by default without configuring other software to populate /var/run/dnsmasq/resolv.conf. This other software (resolvconfconfconf) is listed as optional, so the default configuration should not assume that it is present.

[Lukas B.]

Package: dnsmasq
Version: 2.76-5+rpt1+deb9u1
Severity: important

Dear Maintainer,

Hi

-- System Information:
Distributor ID: Raspbian
Description:    Raspbian GNU/Linux 9.3 (stretch)
Release:        9.3
Codename:       stretch
Architecture: armv7l

Kernel: Linux 4.9.59-v7+ (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) (ignored: LC_ALL 
set to de_DE.UTF-8), LANGUAGE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) (ignored: LC_ALL set 
to de_DE.UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages dnsmasq depends on:
ii  dnsmasq-base         2.76-5+rpt1+deb9u1
ii  init-system-helpers  1.48
ii  netbase              5.4

dnsmasq recommends no packages.

Versions of packages dnsmasq suggests:
ii  openresolv [resolvconf]  3.8.0-1

-- Configuration Files:
/etc/dnsmasq.conf changed [not included]

-- no debconf information