unbound, python and conditional replies based on source IP address

We’re using unbound internally for DNS resolution. It works smoothly and allows for some DNS tricks when you want to implement some split-brain trickery, but not a complete split-brain deployment.  The other day we needed to send out conditional replies based on the IP address of the querying machine.  Unbound comes with a python module but it has some of the weirdest, unhelpful documentation ever.  I am not alone in believing this.

It is very hard to figure out the source IP address of a DNS query using the unbound python library. My first pointer on how to do so was on ServerFault.  I have uploaded my own version of an operate function at pastebin. The code in question that you need to consider is:

# Find out source IP address
rl = qstate.mesh_info.reply_list
while (rl):
  if rl.query_reply:
    q = rl.query_reply
    break
  rl = rl.next

# Careful with this conditional
try: addr = q.addr
except NameError: addr = None

The try … except handling is needed because I found out that sometimes the q.addr may not be defined and thus further down the line you may be bitten by an abnormal exit of your script.

Update: two friends have suggested that I change the while loop with a more Pythonic list comprehension:

q = next((x for x in qstate.mesh_info.reply_list if x.query_reply), None)
try: addr = q.query_reply.addr
except NameError: addr = None

One of them actually has a pretty cool pastebin about it.