Changelogs for 5.4.X

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5.4.0-alpha1

Released: 16th of December 2025

Improvements

• Format rust IOErrors in a nicer way instead of using the default formatter.

  References: pull request 16627

• Move away from rustls-pemfile including update of Rust dependencies.

  References: #16606, pull request 16624

• Coverity 20251203.

  References: pull request 16587

• Kill a handful of clang++ warnings, mostly comparing unsigned to a signed constant.

  References: pull request 16588

• Switch trivial usage of boost::optional to std::optional.

  References: pull request 16487

• Always do ANY queries using TCP.

  References: pull request 16553

• Rewrite all unwrap calls in web.rs.

  References: pull request 16570

• Run clippy when CARGO_USE_DEV and CARGO_USE_CLIPPY are set.

  References: #16557, pull request 16565

• Build our Rust lib in dev profile when CARGO_USE_DEV is set.

  References: #16544, pull request 16546

• Remove first set of unused imports (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16447

• Tidy tcounter related code.

  References: pull request 16496

• Spelling (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16531

• Fix mixed implicit and explicit returns (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16530

• Remove unused assignment (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16516, pull request 16526

• Remove redundant assignment (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16515

• Update to coverallsapp github-action v2.3.7 (Josh Soref).

  References: #16483, pull request 16523

• Remove horrible unused argument with default value (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16495

• Use immediate class parent for super (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16502

• Fix with open(…) as f: (Josh Soref).

  References: #16500, pull request 16509

• Improve reading of operator expression (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16484

• Use with open(…) as f: to ensure file is always closed (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16500

• Stop mixing implicit and explicit returns (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16501

• Codeql unused loop iterator name (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16494

• Fix coverity 1635199, 1643012, 1643013.

  References: pull request 16497

• Codeql use identifiers (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16498

• Do not mutate default values (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16490

• Only import doqclient once (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16491

• Drop unused format argument (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16493

• Use assertNotEqual (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16492

• Do not catch KeyboardInterrupt or SystemExit (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16489

• Do not call sys.exit with a void return (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16488

• Convert metrics_table.py to a module (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16479

• Switch TestRuleMetricsDefault to pass (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16480

• Codeql imprecise assert (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16481

• Drop useless lambda (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16483

• Fix duplicate key in dict literal (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16478

• Contrib/ProtobufLogger.py: Fix syntax error that crept in with 16458.

  References: pull request 16476

• Prep, but do not actually move to C++20.

  References: #14734, pull request 16077

• Implement new feature to only generate OpenTelemetry Traces on certain conditions.

  References: pull request 16362

• rec_control get-parameter: print runtime settings in YAML format if YAML config is active.

  References: pull request 16427

• Chore: Clean up unused variables (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16454

• Clean up unreachable code (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16457

• Fix try/except/as notation (Josh Soref).

  References: #15336, pull request 16459

• Avoid warning about mixed explicit/implicit returns (Josh Soref).

  References: #16458, pull request 16460

• Cleanup endianness determining code.

  References: #16091, pull request 16440

• Use map for getAppliedPolicyTypeAsString (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16458

• Remove options that were deprecated a long time ago.

  References: pull request 16438

• Remember if an answer was received over TCP in record cache.

  References: pull request 16384

• rec-lua-conf.* tidy.

  References: pull request 16426

• Don’t use a vector of string for internal public suffix list.

  References: pull request 16394

• Make version number in rust lib confirm to Rust specifics.

  References: pull request 16392

• Explicit disabling/enabling of tls-gnutls for full and least configs and packages.

  References: pull request 16307

• Allow selecting a specific version of Lua with meson.

  References: pull request 16259

• Fix a few Coverity found issues, all low severity move optimizations.

  References: pull request 16308

• OT tracing: define more Spans with actual duration and add more attributes.

  References: pull request 16190

• Allow ability to validate certificates (and more) for outgoing DoT connections.

  References: pull request 16232

• Move test-protozero-trace.cc to toplevel and add it in the autotools build where it was missing.

  References: pull request 16220

• ProtobufLogger: print OpenTelemetry IDs in hex, add proper command arg parser.

  References: pull request 16219

• Silence rust warning.

  References: pull request 16251

• Docs: Indent list (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16236

• Docs: Add trailing period (Josh Soref).

  References: pull request 16237

• Do not include dnsseckeeper.hh and ueberbackend.hh in rec.

  References: pull request 16227

• We need a usable cargo for sdist so do not download (and install) rust but use package.

  References: pull request 16204

• Fix a few issues reported by coverity, all minor.

  References: pull request 16200

• Rework command dispatcher to be table based.

  References: pull request 16194

• Fix release builds by updating the locked Rust lib version.

  References: #16180, pull request 16188

• Move help text to a table so it’s easier to maintain.

  References: pull request 16175

• Update the Rust library version when generating a tarball.

  References: pull request 16167

• Add a few fields in protobuf logs: ede, edeText and OpenTelemetryTraceID.

  References: pull request 16138

• Better error message when reload-yaml fails.

  References: pull request 16104

• Implement DNS cookie support for outgoing requests.

  References: pull request 15412, pull request 16131

• Update cargos for rec and dnsdist.

  References: #16101, pull request 16106

• Warn on passwordless webserver startup and extends docs.

  References: pull request 16103

• Do not hash (or compare) OpenTelemetry Trace EDNS value for packetcache.

  References: pull request 16098

• Some error paths do no create thread 0 so don’t join it.

  References: pull request 16094

• pubsuffix: tidy and use C++ strings.

  References: pull request 15945

• Add tc flag in answer log (zhaojs).

  References: pull request 15943

• Remove SLOG macro usage in rec specific code.

  References: pull request 15997

• Assorted tidy.

  References: pull request 15949

• Reorder fields of record cache entry by size (saves 8 bytes per entry on 64-bit systems).

  References: pull request 15950

Bug Fixes

• Do proper validation of TCP notifies.

  References: pull request 16615

• Ensure authRecords is empty, as handleHit checks that.

  References: pull request 16614

• Move g_logRPZChanges to proper spot.

  References: #16572, pull request 16580

• fix parsing of webserver loglevel “none”.

  References: #16455, pull request 16461

• Tighten delegation accept.

  References: pull request 16338

• Prevent a potential race condition in cache cleaning.

  References: pull request 16288

• Fix Boost system lib req: it is no longer a lib for boost >= 1.89.

  References: #15972, pull request 15991

• Rec and dnsdist: properly set up env vars for rust build.

  References: #15896, pull request 15915