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I know it's not possible an A record to be empty, but what's a good "null" value I can set until I get a machine for the domain? Someone suggested putting localhost in the A record. Is it ok to do that?

My goal is that I don't want to expose the domain at all until I got something working, not even pointing to a blank HTML page or anything. What's the proper way to do that?

kissgyorgy
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  • Perhaps if you explain what you're trying to accomplish by doing this, you'll get fewer downvotes. "null" `A` records are pointless to DNS resolution, which is why they don't exist aside from the 0.0.0.0 kludge. This suggests you're trying to use DNS to accomplish something outside of the standards and custom to an application. – Andrew B Aug 13 '14 at 14:27

2 Answers2

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It's usually best in such cases to not have a record at all. However, if you really must, 0.0.0.0 is a good choice that is relatively free from side effects.

Falcon Momot
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  • you can't have an A record to be empty, also 0.0.0.0 means "[any IPV4-host at all](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0.0.0.0)", so I don't think that's a good idea to set... – kissgyorgy Aug 13 '14 at 07:18
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    It doesn't mean that at all; see RFC1122. It explicitly has no meaning as a destination address. – Falcon Momot Aug 13 '14 at 07:40
  • @FalconMomot I don't see `0.0.0.0` mentioned anywhere in RFC1122. – kasperd Aug 13 '14 at 07:50
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    @kasperd Section 3.2.1.3, page 29, lines 17 through 21. It's old (and esoteric!), but remains normative and continues to be cited in new RFCs. – Falcon Momot Aug 13 '14 at 08:08
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    @FalconMomot I never saw that notation before. It did not occur to me that I might have to search for `{ 0, 0 }` in order to find that address within the document. – kasperd Aug 13 '14 at 08:15
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If you don't want your DNS server to return anything for a particular name, just remove the record in question.

Oliver
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  • I always wondered what makes people answer questions they did not read... I started the question with "not possible". – kissgyorgy Aug 13 '14 at 07:16
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    It is always possible to remove the A record. In your question, you tell that an empty value is impossible, that is true. Removing an A-record is definitely possible. – Tero Kilkanen Aug 13 '14 at 11:31