4 ms·

I always use .local when I have an app running on my machine locally. It's one of IANA's reserved special-use domains as well.

by M4v3R 9y ago

okket 9y ago
.local might be used for mDNS, mostly with Apple hardware.
- technion 9y ago
  And an issue most sysadmins would be familiar with unfortunately. For years, Microsoft's own guidelines suggested using .local for internal AD domains. Then one day, Apple started using it on mDNS, and Microsoft advice was suddenly "never use .local". But renaming an AD domain is painful and in many scenarios not supported at all, and people with domains more than a few years old are regularly pointed at Microsoft's recommendations and forced to explain the situation.
  - snuxoll 9y ago
    As far back as I can remember the domain creation wizard has yelled at you for using a non-delegated zone, .local was a stupid default they put into SBS and unfortunately it led them into a mess of saying “yes, this is OK” and “no, don’t do this” at the same time...
  - quasse 9y ago
    Ugh, our AD domain at work isn't even that old but was set up by some local consulting company and of course they used .local. It causes all sorts of grief when shared SMB drives won't resolve on linux, or you can't tell at first blush whether the DNS server is working properly or you just happen to have mDNS correctly resolving something for you on one machine (but not on another).
- hobarrera 9y ago
  > mostly with Apple hardware. And on BSD/Linux (with avahi). And on Phones. Actually, I think ONLY windows does not use this, though the mDNS implementation (bonjour) for windows uses that too.
- jopsen 9y ago
  And Linux... I haven't tried it, but supposedly you could host a .local site on your laptop and access it from your phone using the same wifi network.
  - jnwatson 9y ago
    It does work. I use it all the time.
AndyMcConachie 9y ago
You really shouldn't do this. https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6762 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6762
- edaemon 9y ago
  I looked through that trying to find why the parent commenter shouldn't use .local as they described, and it sounds like their use case is exactly what the RFC recommends. Can you explain why it's a bad idea?
  - dunham 9y ago
    If they're relying on a DNS server for resolution, they might not get the behavior they expect on an RFC compliant system. Any DNS query for a name ending with ".local." MUST be sent to the mDNS IPv4 link-local multicast address 224.0.0.251 (or its IPv6 equivalent FF02::FB).
    - edaemon 9y ago
      That's possible but it doesn't really seem like "really shouldn't do this" type of problem.
eridius 9y ago
.local is reserved for mDNS domain resolution (e.g. Bonjour). Don't use it for anything else.

I always use .local when I have an app running on my machine locally. It's one of IANA's reserved special-use domains as well.

by M4v3R 9y ago

I always use .local when I have an app running on my machine locally. It's one of IANA's reserved special-use domains as well.

okket 9y ago

.local might be used for mDNS, mostly with Apple hardware.

technion 9y ago
And an issue most sysadmins would be familiar with unfortunately. For years, Microsoft's own guidelines suggested using .local for internal AD domains. Then one day, Apple started using it on mDNS, and Microsoft advice was suddenly "never use .local". But renaming an AD domain is painful and in many scenarios not supported at all, and people with domains more than a few years old are regularly pointed at Microsoft's recommendations and forced to explain the situation.
- snuxoll 9y ago
  As far back as I can remember the domain creation wizard has yelled at you for using a non-delegated zone, .local was a stupid default they put into SBS and unfortunately it led them into a mess of saying “yes, this is OK” and “no, don’t do this” at the same time...
- quasse 9y ago
  Ugh, our AD domain at work isn't even that old but was set up by some local consulting company and of course they used .local. It causes all sorts of grief when shared SMB drives won't resolve on linux, or you can't tell at first blush whether the DNS server is working properly or you just happen to have mDNS correctly resolving something for you on one machine (but not on another).
hobarrera 9y ago
> mostly with Apple hardware. And on BSD/Linux (with avahi). And on Phones. Actually, I think ONLY windows does not use this, though the mDNS implementation (bonjour) for windows uses that too.
jopsen 9y ago
And Linux... I haven't tried it, but supposedly you could host a .local site on your laptop and access it from your phone using the same wifi network.
- jnwatson 9y ago
  It does work. I use it all the time.

AndyMcConachie 9y ago

You really shouldn't do this. https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6762 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6762

edaemon 9y ago
I looked through that trying to find why the parent commenter shouldn't use .local as they described, and it sounds like their use case is exactly what the RFC recommends. Can you explain why it's a bad idea?
- dunham 9y ago
  If they're relying on a DNS server for resolution, they might not get the behavior they expect on an RFC compliant system. Any DNS query for a name ending with ".local." MUST be sent to the mDNS IPv4 link-local multicast address 224.0.0.251 (or its IPv6 equivalent FF02::FB).
  - edaemon 9y ago
    That's possible but it doesn't really seem like "really shouldn't do this" type of problem.

eridius 9y ago

.local is reserved for mDNS domain resolution (e.g. Bonjour). Don't use it for anything else.