I would like to use a domain name in an example. I know that example.com
exists for this purpose, but I would like the domain name not to exist (and not to start existing later). Is there any canonical example of a domain name which is guaranteed not to exist?
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a3nm
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As per RFC 6761 section 6.4, the domain invalid.
and any names falling within .invalid.
, can be assumed not to exist.
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1I wonder what the RFC means by "names falling within .invalid." -- host www.invalid.com has address 173.0.129.46 (so what, exactly is the *legal* hostname that is guaranteed never to resolve? cuz .invalid. is not a legal hostname...) – gigawatt May 11 '17 at 17:34
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I think this means "hostnames ending with .invalid", I guess the extra dot at the end is just a notation. – a3nm May 11 '17 at 20:53
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5The `.` at the end refers to the root zone, the one to which all top-level domains belong. It does not mean "substring contained", it means that when normalized to a FQDN ("fully qualified domain name", which implies having the root zone dot at the end), it does not end with `.invalid.` – Jesper Apr 03 '18 at 13:55