dnsdist: Ponder adding the ability to include YAML configuration files

[rgacogne]

Tentatively set to 2.1.0 but no promises, I need to see how complex it would be to keep validating the configuration.

Discussed in https://github.com/orgs/PowerDNS/discussions/15973

^{Originally posted by Warex61 August 13, 2025}

1. Issue Description

I recently migrated to dnsdist 2.0 and I'm testing the new YAML configuration format. However, I cannot reproduce the modular structure I had with the Lua format.

Current Configuration (Lua) - Working

-- /etc/dnsdist/dnsdist.conf
includeDirectory("/etc/dnsdist/dnsdist.d")

File structure:

/etc/dnsdist/
├── dnsdist.conf
└── dnsdist.d/
    ├── 01-binds.conf
    ├── 02-backends.conf
    ├── 03-conf3.conf
    └── 04-conf4.conf

Attempted Configuration (YAML) - Not Working

Is this possible to include YAML configuration file as LUA fles ?

It can be something like :

# /etc/dnsdist/dnsdist.yml
---
includes:
  - "/etc/dnsdist/conf.d/binds.yml"
  - "/etc/dnsdist/conf.d/backends.yml"

2. Question

Is this possible or a missing feature?

In the Lua format, we can easily organize our configuration into modules with includeDirectory().

Current YAML Configuration

This only way I found for YAML configuration is to put all my configuration in a single dnsdist.yml file.

Environment Information

• dnsdist version: 2.0.0
• OS: Debian 12
• Configuration format: YAML

Thank you in advance and for your time !