dns_priority

DNS servers priority.

The relative priority for DNS servers specified by this setting. A lower numerical value is better (higher priority).

Negative values have the special effect of excluding other configurations with a greater numerical priority value; so in presence of at least one negative priority, only DNS servers from connections with the lowest priority value will be used. To avoid all DNS leaks, set the priority of the profile that should be used to the most negative value of all active connections profiles.

Zero selects a globally configured default value. If the latter is missing or zero too, it defaults to 50 for VPNs (including WireGuard) and 100 for other connections.

Note that the priority is to order DNS settings for multiple active connections. It does not disambiguate multiple DNS servers within the same connection profile.

When multiple devices have configurations with the same priority, VPNs will be considered first, then devices with the best (lowest metric) default route and then all other devices.

When using dns=default, servers with higher priority will be on top of resolv.conf. To prioritize a given server over another one within the same connection, just specify them in the desired order. Note that commonly the resolver tries name servers in /etc/resolv.conf in the order listed, proceeding with the next server in the list on failure. See for example the "rotate" option of the dns-options setting. If there are any negative DNS priorities, then only name servers from the devices with that lowest priority will be considered.

When using a DNS resolver that supports Conditional Forwarding or Split DNS (with dns=dnsmasq or dns=systemd-resolved settings), each connection is used to query domains in its search list. The search domains determine which name servers to ask, and the DNS priority is used to prioritize name servers based on the domain. Queries for domains not present in any search list are routed through connections having the '~.' special wildcard domain, which is added automatically to connections with the default route (or can be added manually). When multiple connections specify the same domain, the one with the best priority (lowest numerical value) wins. If a sub domain is configured on another interface it will be accepted regardless the priority, unless parent domain on the other interface has a negative priority, which causes the sub domain to be shadowed. With Split DNS one can avoid undesired DNS leaks by properly configuring DNS priorities and the search domains, so that only name servers of the desired interface are configured.