Gyroplast

Wise decision! Best of luck for when you give it another try, with fresh eyes and a clear mind, and enjoy your XP gain dopamine on the way.

Yeah, that’s normal, intended, and does not prevent general lookups taking the global DNS first. Do you see an issue with this?

I gave this setup a try real quick, to make sure I’m not overlooking something, with dnsmasq for testing on 127.0.0.1:9053:

[gyroplast@e15g4 ~]$ dnsmasq --listen-address=127.0.0.1 --port=9053 --address=/testme.localnet/127.42.0.69 --no-daemon --no-hosts --no-poll --log-queries
dnsmasq: started, version 2.90 cachesize 150
dnsmasq: compile time options: IPv6 GNU-getopt DBus no-UBus i18n IDN2 DHCP DHCPv6 no-Lua TFTP conntrack ipset nftset auth cryptohash DNSSEC loop-detect inotify dumpfile
dnsmasq: warning: no upstream servers configured
dnsmasq: cleared cache

When triggering a query on that test record, f. ex. with ping -c1 testme.localnet, you’ll see it’s directed to the dnsmasq instance and working as intended:

dnsmasq: query[A] testme.localnet from 127.0.0.1
dnsmasq: config testme.localnet is 127.42.0.69
dnsmasq: query[AAAA] testme.localnet from 127.0.0.1
dnsmasq: config error is REFUSED (EDE: not ready)
dnsmasq: query[AAAA] testme.localnet from 127.0.0.1
dnsmasq: config error is REFUSED (EDE: not ready)

The DNS setup with systemd-resolved is pretty confusing, and outright contradicts many, MANY previously correct instructions of how to set your /etc/resolv.conf. I’m not surprised if it is giving you a headache right now, but all I can say is to diligently work through its configuration, and understand how systemd-resolved is supposed to work. From experience, make sure your tests are sound and representative, or you’ll continue looking for errors in your setup despite everything actually working just fine, maybe because you missed a reload or had a typo or misunderstanding in your wireshark filter.

In the same vein, make sure your DNS listening on :9053 is really working as intended, otherwise you can bark up the wrong tree all day long. Debug logging is your friend, and more accessible and less error prone than tcpdump/wireshark.

You’ll figure it out from here, I’m sure.

I ran the command with sudo and got the error.

Yes, that’s why I said don’t do that. It’s a common, non-intuitive interaction with sudo and shell redirections. Don’t stress over it, I shouldn’t have done it all that fancy in the first place.

Regarding your problem: Your setup is likely inconsistent now due to your experiments and previous setup attempts. HOLD THE REINSTALL, learn to fix it, it’s not that complex. First off: you’re not running in the recommended “stub mode” where /etc/resolv.conf is symlinked to /run/systemd/resolve/stub-resolv.conf, and where the configuration you did is actually actively used. Fix that first. Have some docs. This is my stub /etc/resolv.conf, for example, so you know what to look for, roughly:

[root@e15g4 gyroplast]# cat /etc/resolv.conf 
# This is /run/systemd/resolve/stub-resolv.conf managed by man:systemd-resolved(8).
# [...]
nameserver 127.0.0.53
options edns0 trust-ad
search fritz.box

Don’t create that file with these contents manually. Read the docs, follow the instructions, don’t ruin your day.

Assert you have no lingering, conflicting setup in the /etc/systemd/resolved.conf main config. The default file is effectively empty / commented out, to allow for automatic system updates without conflicts. You could reinstall the package to get the original file back if you’re unsure.

Make sure the systemd-resolved.service is enabled and started: systemctl enable --now systemd-resolved.service You might want to install systemd-resolvconf as well if you commit to a systemd-resolved setup, for maximum compatibility.

Make use of resolvectl status to verify the status:

Global
           Protocols: +LLMNR +mDNS -DNSOverTLS DNSSEC=no/unsupported
    resolv.conf mode: stub
  Current DNS Server: 127.0.0.1:9053
         DNS Servers: 127.0.0.1:9053
Fallback DNS Servers: 1.1.1.1#cloudflare-dns.com 9.9.9.9#dns.quad9.net 8.8.8.8#dns.google
                      2606:4700:4700::1111#cloudflare-dns.com 2620:fe::9#dns.quad9.net 2001:4860:4860::8888#dns.google
[...]

If that’s still not what is expected, crank up debugging and check the logs of the service to see if for some reason your config file isn’t loaded due to a typo somewhere, or if it’s loaded, any other reason that may override your settings later. It’s practically guaranteed there’s an inconsistency left somewhere, and reading the debug log points you at the actual problem.

It’s worth fixing this in that way. With stub mode, you gain a lot of flexibility in your setup, and it works well in tandem with NetworkManager, DHCP, VPNs, and libvirt/qemu networking. You have to make sure you’re not inadvertently setting up some broken “hybrid” of old-school /etc/resolv.conf manual config and systemd-resolved, this will drive you mad, and it’s a pain to diagnose. Read that wiki page, do not intermingle with crap you pick up on stackoverflow or AI bullshit, and you’ll end up with a DNS config that actually works like magic.

Don’t slap a sudo in front where it doesn’t belong. Run this as root, or the shell redirection will fail. Or just create that file with these contents in any other way you like and feel comfortable with, it’s not a magic incantation you have to use verbatim, after all.

DNS is a resolved.conf only setting. systemd docs are comprehensive and help navigating what to put where, no need to throw shit at the wall and see what sticks. :)

man resolved.conf:

OPTIONS
       The following options are available in the [Resolve] section:

       DNS=
           A space-separated list of IPv4 and IPv6 addresses to use as system DNS servers. Each address can optionally
           take a port number separated with ":", a network interface name or index separated with "%", and a Server
           Name Indication (SNI) separated with "#". When IPv6 address is specified with a port number, then the
           address must be in the square brackets. That is, the acceptable full formats are
           "111.222.333.444:9953%ifname#example.com" for IPv4 and "[1111:2222::3333]:9953%ifname#example.com" for IPv6.
           DNS requests are sent to one of the listed DNS servers in parallel to suitable per-link DNS servers acquired
           from systemd-networkd.service(8) or set at runtime by external applications. For compatibility reasons, if
           this setting is not specified, the DNS servers listed in /etc/resolv.conf are used instead, if that file
           exists and any servers are configured in it. This setting defaults to the empty list.

           Added in version 213.

TL;DR: Create a drop-in for resolved and put the DNS= line there, with colon separating the port. Reload the config of the service to activate.

install -o0 -g0 -dm755 /etc/systemd/resolved.conf.d

install -o0 -g0 -m644 <(cat <<EOF
[Resolve]
DNS=127.0.0.1:9053
EOF
) /etc/systemd/resolved.conf.d/90-dns_port.conf

cat /etc/systemd/resolved.conf.d/90-dns_port.conf 
[Resolve]
DNS=127.0.0.1:9053

systemctl reload systemd-resolved

I’ve had so much trouble with tooling

Obvious skill issue. /s

I don’t feel like I can make any impact

Assuming you don’t just want to vent, but maybe get some sort of unfounded and useless opinion from a total stranger to go along with your misery, let me oblige. I’ve never been a cog in a truly large company, but I’ve been rubbing shoulders with managers and C-level just barely enough to begin seeing “their side”, and consider it in my interaction with cOwOrkers and management to effectively act as a conduit or translation layer between camps. It’s a metagame you’ll have to want to play, but it can be rewarding to finnagle the systems of human psyche to have a positive impact, not only for yourself.

From a manager’s perspective, everything has a cost. It’s called tech debt for a reason. As long as paying the interest on your tech debt outweighs the perceived cost of paying off the debt, you’re doing the right thing from a business perspective. In addition, be keenly aware of the fact that you personally will impossibly know the huge dark-company iceberg that is the existing tooling and its context. I guarantee you that there’s so much unknown to you, which makes the proposition “I would fix this in a few days, just let me!” seem rightfully preposterous, and thus actively dangerous, as you obviously don’t fathom the full complexity of the larger issue and would necessarily break things for others, despite your best intentions and competence.

Yes, the tooling certainly is utter garbage, and they should never have locked themselves in such a horribly broken situation, but there they are, and you can’t just “fix this” without understanding the implications. Many devs, myself certainly included, easily fall into the trap of seeing an obvious and clear way of fixing everything™ in a matter of minutes, and realizing too late that “just one more patch” is an endless pursuit, all while breaking user-space for others on the way. It’s a meme old as dirt among hackers.

Assume you don’t know all the details, and really nobody does anymore, and you’ll live a happier life if you leave this (business) decision of letting code rot to others. It’s their money they’re wasting.

What you can do, however, is gold-wrapping the pile of shit you need to work with. Find creative ways to wrap byzantine processes into a bunch of scripts for yourself to automate and generalize your tasks specifically, and watch your productivity soar and your mental health rise, and offer that as a working band-aid to your peers and manager. That’s not only a better use of your time than seething over how shitty everything is, but also plays very well into a devops mindset and is actually kind of fun. It also comes across way better than being the “new guy who knows everything better, but actually hasn’t seen nothing, yet”, which leads to people not listening you in the first place. That vibe is an instant turn-off for any lead, and leads to shadow-banning you from interesting, fruitful conversations you seem to look for.

Obviously I’m confabulating all of this, and this may very well not apply to you or your situation at all. This is just a behavioral pattern I’ve seen way too often, and it’s helpful to detect this in oneself to prevent unnecessary frustration all around.

My plan

is possibly your best option. Go ahead. You have no obligations or “loyalty” towards an uncaring entity holding you back.

“Cash or credit?” “Arch, btw.”

What kind of soulless psychopath leaves a window of this size unmaximized is the real question here. Also, a horizontal scrollbar in the main section, able to scroll maybe 8 pixels total to see some more of the glorious empty padding, could have been a nice touch as a consequence of the “unintended” window size.

I would not differentiate needlessly between the terms function and [“dunder”, “instance”, “module”, “class”] method, this isn’t practical at the current point in time, and arguably not pythonic. They are all callables and behave very similar for all practical purposes, all quacking like a duck.

If you want to deep-dive into the intricacies, there’s technically a bunch of alternative “method types” with slightly differing calling and argument passing conventions. There are class methods, static methods, class properties, and module-scope functions off the top of my head, all very similar, but particularly suitable under specific circumstances.

If I wanted a String utility class, for example, I could have that:

class String:
  @staticmethod
  def len(string: str) -> int:
    if not isinstance(string, str):
      raise TypeError("Cannot determine length of non-string object")
    return len(string)

s = "foobar"
assert String.len(s) == 6

In Python I generally find static methods hardly as relevant as in other languages, and tend to create utility modules instead, with plain functions and maybe dataclasses for complex arguments or return values, which can then be imported and called pretty much the same way as a static method, but without the extra organisational class layer. I’d argue that’s very much a matter of taste, and how much of a purebred OOP jockey you are, for better or worse.

Class properties are cool, however, you might want to look into that. It’s getters/setters on crack, masquerading as their respective property, so that something like this “just works”:

s = MyString("foobar")
assert s.len == 6

Are there any other ways I would find the length? Or are methods and functions the only options?

You could get creative and find several inferior, silly, and utterly insane ways of achieving the same result, for example by treating a string as an interable (read: “list” or “array”) of its constituent characters, and count the number of characters. This feels very “example (but not exemplary) code on the first pages of a crappy C++ textbook”, but hey, it’s a way:

length = 0
string = "foobar"
for char in string:
  length = length + 1
print(length)

Mind you, this is not programming. This is toying around, and perfectly valid in that way, but no-one in a halfway sane state of mind would dare suggest doing it this way with Python if you actually care about the result. :)

deleted by creator

What is the difference between these types of statements?

Technically, len() is a Python built-in function, while "some string".len() would be an instance method of a string object, if such an instance method existed.

How do I think about this to know which one I should expect to work?

As a very general rule of thumb, I would recommend to keep the list of built-in functions close and memorize the “popular ones” over time. These are special. Anything else you encounter usually is an instance or class method, or a plain function without any object-oriented shenanigans, depending on how structured the code is you are looking at.

Learn to navigate the Python reference docs. Use the search function liberally if you don’t come from a search engine result, anyway, or jump directly to the docs for the module you’re interested in to see what functionality it offers, and how to use it.

Python is annoyingly flexible, and does not strictly enforce a single way to do anything, so learning what to expect always ends up as building an intuition, and actively looking up documentation for the modules, classes, or functions you intend to use until you have encountered enough (good) Python code to have reasonable expectations in the first place.

TL;DR: grep the relevant module’s docs, or Python built-ins. It’s typically one or the other where you find detailed help.