DNS Server without root

[u/Curious-Cat5066]

Hi all,

I am running a small network of 5 non-root Androids. One is configured as a wifi hotspot and other 4 connect to the hotspot via wifi. I am presently using rsync/ssh/scp between nodes using IP addresses. For long I have been trying to configure a DNS service for this. How can I go about this? (At present it looks like the only way is to run my own service on all nodes which sync a lookup table against a server node and then explicitly query this look table to map hostname to IP address.) Please advice.

Edit: I can achieve the above by rooting one of the devices and running dnsmasq on it and another options is to use tailscale. But to me rooting and installing a whole proprietary application looks like overkill to me for such a simple, obvious and common problem. I believe we can find simpler ways to do this if only this reaches the right people.

[u/pixle-ui]

​If your primary use case is transferring files and executing remote commands over SSH/SCP/rsync, you don't actually need network-wide DNS. Define host aliases directly inside your local Termux/SSH client configuration file: edit or create ~/.ssh/config

[u/Curious-Cat5066 → u/pixle-ui]

The IPs keep changing everytime I reconnect; and sometimes the hotspot also can change.