An option to use the all-servers flag (and other options of priorizing the list of servers) of dnsmasq would be nice. From my point of view it changes the way the servers are accessed. With the flag, there seems to be parallel requests, with the first reply being used for forwarding. This might be a option to control number of dns requests vs. minimum latency.
Edit: There is a guy inverstigating this flag, with some positive effect, see Make DNS fly with dnsmasq –all-servers | ma.ttwagner.com
For now, you can add it to a custom config file under /etc/dnsmasq.d
this is what i do, now. but ticking a flag (default,strict-order,all-server) in the webfrontend would help the non-advanced users to opt out the limits of dnsmasq for pihole. maybe, easy to implement and worth to be set up in the frontend. thanks for considering my request.
We would have to explain users what the different options mean in short and easy sentences. For all-servers this may be something along the lines of
Setting this flag forces dnsmasq to send all queries to all available servers.
Benefit: May result in (marginally) faster responses.
Drawback: May degrade your privacy as all of the upstream DNS server will always see all queries.
Precondition: Multiple DNS server defined.
strict-order
Try each query with each server strictly in the order they appear.
all-servers
Send all queries to all available servers. First reply will be forwarded.
default
Send queries to just one (favoured) server.
Setting all-servers will result in faster responses, but multiplies the number of requests.
Note: The privacy is degraded by setting the wrong servers or setting multiple servers. The flag only changes the mode of service. Reliance on the servers is a prerequisite of using them. Just my 2ct.
How would this be set in FTLDNS?
FTLDNS is, in fact, dnsmasq, just embedded into the FTL daemon. There is no difference to how you'd have done it before (set the option in any file in /etc/dnsmasq.d, preferably in a new file)