Remove DNS mocking from tests; use live DNS everywhere

DNS is never mocked in this repository: tests exercise live DNS,
and robustness comes from handling real-world DNS behavior with
tolerant assertions and sensible timeouts, not from mocks.

watcher: drop mockResolver and wire the real iterative resolver
into the tests, querying stable public names (example.com,
www.example.com). Change detection is exercised by seeding the
state store with a synthetic previous observation that live DNS
cannot match (reserved .invalid nameserver names and RFC 5737
documentation addresses); DNS stays live in every run. The port
checker, TLS checker, and notifier remain test doubles since they
are not DNS, keeping notification and state assertions
deterministic against whatever addresses live DNS returns.

resolver: drop the timeoutClient fake DNSClient and the
NewFromLoggerWithClient mock constructor. The timeout test is
replaced by a live query against an RFC 5737 documentation
address where no nameserver can exist, asserting a classified
non-OK response with no records.

TESTING.md: extend the live-DNS policy to every package and
remove the carve-out that permitted DNS mocks in packages that
consume the resolver.

TODO.md: update stale references to hermetic mocked-DNS work to
reflect the no-mocking policy and the current state of
feature/resolver.

Intentionally dropped coverage: the exact StatusTimeout
classification (previously forced by the fake client) is no
longer asserted, because a genuinely unreachable server may fail
fast instead of timing out depending on the network path; the
live test tolerantly accepts any failure classification.

Dockerfile

@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ FROM golang@sha256:f6751d823c26342f9506c03797d2527668d095b0a15f1862cddb4d927a7a4
 RUN apk add --no-cache git make gcc musl-dev binutils-gold
 
 # golangci-lint v2.12.2, 2026-08-07
-RUN go install github.com/golangci/golangci-lint/v2/cmd/golangci-lint@v2.12.2
+RUN go install github.com/golangci/golangci-lint/v2/cmd/golangci-lint@c0d3ddc9cf3faa61a4e378e879ece580256d76e5
 # goimports v0.42.0
 RUN go install golang.org/x/tools/cmd/goimports@009367f5c17a8d4c45a961a3a509277190a9a6f0
 

README.md

@@ -17,6 +17,26 @@ without requiring an external database.
 
 ---
 
+## No DNS mocking. Ever.
+
+**DNS is never mocked in this project — not in tests, not anywhere else.**
+No mock resolvers, no fake DNS servers, no stubbed lookups.
+
+dnswatcher's entire purpose is correct behavior against the real DNS.
+Tests exercise real iterative resolution against live nameservers by
+design; a test suite that passes against a mock proves nothing about the
+one thing this program exists to do.
+
+When live tests are flaky, that is a robustness problem, and it gets
+fixed with robustness: retries with backoff, querying multiple
+independent nameservers, longer timeouts — or explicit opt-in gating
+decided by the project owner. Never with mocks.
+
+Contributions that introduce mocked, faked, or stubbed DNS will be
+rejected.
+
+---
+
 ## Features
 
 ### DNS Domain Monitoring (Apex Domains)

TESTING.md

@@ -2,8 +2,10 @@
 
 ## DNS Resolution Tests
 
-All resolver tests **MUST** use live queries against real DNS servers.
-No mocking of the DNS client layer is permitted.
+All tests that involve DNS resolution — in every package, including
+consumers of the resolver such as the watcher — **MUST** use live
+queries against real DNS servers. No mocking, faking, or stubbing of
+DNS at any layer is permitted.
 
 ### Rationale
 
@@ -12,6 +14,8 @@ the full delegation chain. Mocked responses cannot faithfully represent
 the variety of real-world DNS behavior (truncation, referrals, glue
 records, DNSSEC, varied response times, EDNS, etc.). Testing against
 real servers ensures the resolver works correctly in production.
+Robustness comes from handling real-world DNS behavior with tolerant
+assertions and sensible timeouts, not from mocks.
 
 ### Constraints
 
@@ -24,11 +28,14 @@ real servers ensures the resolver works correctly in production.
 - Flaky failures from transient network issues are acceptable and
   should be investigated as potential resolver bugs, not papered over
   with mocks or skip flags
+- Watcher change-detection tests seed a synthetic *previous state*
+  and compare it against fresh live lookups; the DNS side is never
+  faked
 
 ### What NOT to do
 
-- **Do not mock `DNSClient`** for resolver tests (the mock constructor
-  exists for unit-testing other packages that consume the resolver)
+- **Do not mock `DNSClient`**, the watcher's `DNSResolver` interface,
+  or any other DNS abstraction — in any package, for any reason
 - **Do not add `-short` flags** to skip slow tests
 - **Do not increase `-timeout`** to hide hanging queries
 - **Do not modify linter configuration** to suppress findings

TODO.md

@@ -14,7 +14,10 @@ pre-1.0. No git tags. Core resolver work in flight on feature/resolver
 (dirty: internal/resolver/resolver_test.go). Local checkout has diverged
 from origin: origin/main is 8 commits ahead (watcher orchestrator,
 unified TARGETS) and origin/feature/resolver already contains the full
-iterative resolver implementation with hermetic mocked tests.
+iterative resolver implementation. DNS mocking is banned in this repo
+(see `TESTING.md`): all tests use live DNS only. The hermetic mocked
+tests previously noted on `feature/resolver` are gone from its current
+tip, which carries a live-DNS suite against `*.dns.sneak.cloud`.
 
 # Next Step
 
@@ -25,14 +28,23 @@ confirm make check still passes.
 
 # Completed Steps
 
-- 2026-08-07: golangci-lint bumped to v2.12.2 (pins in `Dockerfile` and
-  `script/bootstrap`), `.golangci.yml` replaced with the canonical v2
-  config (settings moved under `linters.settings` so thresholds now
-  apply); fixed all resulting `goconst`, `dupl`, and `lll` findings
+- 2026-08-07: DNS mocking removed from the entire test suite; watcher
+  tests now drive the real iterative resolver against live DNS and
+  `TESTING.md` bans DNS mocks in every package (`remove-dns-mocking`
+  branch)
+- 2026-08-07: golangci-lint bumped to v2.12.2 (commit-pinned installs
+  in `Dockerfile` and `script/bootstrap`); `.golangci.yml` set to the
+  org-standard v2-schema config used across the org's repos
+  (owner-authorized; same file is being landed as canonical via prompts
+  PR #24), with settings under `linters.settings` so the
+  lll/funlen/cyclop/dupl thresholds apply; fixed the resulting
+  `goconst`, `dupl`, and `lll` findings; the informational `gomodguard`
+  deprecation warning under this config is accepted
 - 2026-07-07 Adopted scripts-to-rule-them-all: `script/` entrypoints,
   Makefile shims, README Entrypoints section
 - 2026-02-20: iterative DNS resolver implemented; tests made hermetic
-  with mocked DNS (origin/feature/resolver, unmerged)
+  with mocked DNS (origin/feature/resolver, unmerged; superseded — DNS
+  mocking is banned, see `TESTING.md`)
 - 2026-02-20: CI actions and go install refs pinned to commit SHAs;
   Gitea Actions workflow for make check (origin/ci/make-check, unmerged)
 - 2026-02-20: watcher monitoring orchestrator merged to main (#8)
@@ -59,8 +71,9 @@ Branch reconciliation:
 - Sync local checkout with origin: local main is 8 commits behind
   origin/main; local feature/resolver has diverged from
   origin/feature/resolver, which already implements the resolver
-- Merge in-flight branches to main once green: feature/resolver,
-  ci/make-check, feature/portcheck-implementation,
+- Merge in-flight branches to main once green: feature/resolver
+  (confirm its tests remain live-DNS — DNS mocking is banned, see
+  `TESTING.md`), ci/make-check, feature/portcheck-implementation,
   feature/tlscheck-implementation
 
 Resolver (plan from untracked TODO.md; largely implemented on
@@ -144,6 +157,7 @@ Infrastructure notes (from untracked TODO.md):
 - Module path sneak.berlin/go/dnswatcher differs from the git.eeqj.de
   remote intentionally; do not "fix" it
 - Dependencies: github.com/miekg/dns, golang.org/x/net/publicsuffix
-- Resolver tests originally used live DNS against *.dns.sneak.cloud
-  (required records documented in the test file header); origin now has
-  mocked hermetic tests, keep them hermetic
+- Resolver tests originally used live DNS against `*.dns.sneak.cloud`
+  (required records documented in the test file header); `main` now
+  tests against live public DNS. DNS mocking is banned (see
+  `TESTING.md`); never reintroduce hermetic mocked DNS tests

internal/resolver/dns_client.go

@@ -7,8 +7,8 @@ import (
 	"github.com/miekg/dns"
 )
 
-// DNSClient abstracts DNS wire-protocol exchanges so the resolver
-// can be tested without hitting real nameservers.
+// DNSClient abstracts DNS wire-protocol exchanges over a single
+// transport, letting the resolver switch between UDP and TCP.
 type DNSClient interface {
 	ExchangeContext(
 		ctx context.Context,

internal/resolver/resolver.go

@@ -67,17 +67,4 @@ func NewFromLogger(log *slog.Logger) *Resolver {
 	}
 }
 
-// NewFromLoggerWithClient creates a Resolver with a custom DNS
-// client, useful for testing with mock DNS responses.
-func NewFromLoggerWithClient(
-	log *slog.Logger,
-	client DNSClient,
-) *Resolver {
-	return &Resolver{
-		log:    log,
-		client: client,
-		tcp:    client,
-	}
-}
-
 // Method implementations are in iterative.go.

internal/resolver/resolver_test.go

@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@ import (
 	"testing"
 	"time"
 
-	"github.com/miekg/dns"
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
 
@@ -624,57 +623,40 @@ func TestQueryAllNameservers_ContextCanceled(t *testing.T) {
 }
 
 // ----------------------------------------------------------------
-// Timeout tests
+// Unreachable nameserver tests
 // ----------------------------------------------------------------
 
-func TestQueryNameserverIP_Timeout(t *testing.T) {
+func TestQueryNameserverIP_UnreachableServer(t *testing.T) {
 	t.Parallel()
 
-	log := slog.New(slog.NewTextHandler(
-		os.Stderr,
-		&slog.HandlerOptions{Level: slog.LevelDebug},
-	))
-
-	r := resolver.NewFromLoggerWithClient(
-		log, &timeoutClient{},
-	)
+	r := newTestResolver(t)
 
 	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(
 		context.Background(), 10*time.Second,
 	)
 	t.Cleanup(cancel)
 
-	// Query any IP — the client always returns a timeout error.
+	// 192.0.2.1 is an RFC 5737 documentation address: no
+	// nameserver can exist there. Depending on the network
+	// path the queries either time out (silent drop) or fail
+	// fast (ICMP unreachable), so accept any non-OK status;
+	// the resolver must return a classified response with no
+	// records rather than an error or a hang.
 	resp, err := r.QueryNameserverIP(
 		ctx, "unreachable.test.", "192.0.2.1",
 		"example.com",
 	)
 	require.NoError(t, err)
 
-	assert.Equal(t, resolver.StatusTimeout, resp.Status)
-	assert.NotEmpty(t, resp.Error)
+	assert.NotEqual(t, resolver.StatusOK, resp.Status)
+
+	totalRecords := 0
+	for _, values := range resp.Records {
+		totalRecords += len(values)
 	}
 
-// timeoutClient simulates DNS timeout errors for testing.
-type timeoutClient struct{}
-
-func (c *timeoutClient) ExchangeContext(
-	_ context.Context,
-	_ *dns.Msg,
-	_ string,
-) (*dns.Msg, time.Duration, error) {
-	return nil, 0, &net.OpError{
-		Op:  "read",
-		Net: "udp",
-		Err: &timeoutError{},
+	assert.Zero(t, totalRecords)
 }
-}
-
-type timeoutError struct{}
-
-func (e *timeoutError) Error() string   { return "i/o timeout" }
-func (e *timeoutError) Timeout() bool   { return true }
-func (e *timeoutError) Temporary() bool { return true }
 
 func TestResolveIPAddresses_ContextCanceled(t *testing.T) {
 	t.Parallel()

script/bootstrap

@@ -4,14 +4,14 @@
 # installed tools are skipped. Base tooling comes from nix, apt, brew,
 # or apk (detected in that order); assumes nothing is present.
 # golangci-lint and goimports are installed via `go install` at the same
-# pinned refs the Dockerfile uses (never "latest").
+# pinned commits the Dockerfile uses (never "latest").
 set -eu
 
 ROOT="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")/.." && pwd -P)"
 
 # Pinned versions, 2026-08-07 (same pins as the Dockerfile)
 # golangci-lint v2.12.2
-GOLANGCI_LINT_REF="github.com/golangci/golangci-lint/v2/cmd/golangci-lint@v2.12.2"
+GOLANGCI_LINT_REF="github.com/golangci/golangci-lint/v2/cmd/golangci-lint@c0d3ddc9cf3faa61a4e378e879ece580256d76e5"
 # goimports v0.42.0
 GOIMPORTS_REF="golang.org/x/tools/cmd/goimports@009367f5c17a8d4c45a961a3a509277190a9a6f0"