The name test is reserved by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in RFC 2606 (June 1999) as a domain name that is not intended to be installed as a top-level domain (TLD) in the global Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet for production use.
Reserved DNS names
In 1999, the Internet Engineering Task Force reserved the DNS labels example, invalid, localhost, and test so that they may not be installed into the root zone of the Domain Name System.
The reason for reservation of these top-level domain names is to reduce the likelihood of conflict and confusion. This allows the use of these names for either documentation purposes or in local testing scenarios.
Types
IANA distinguishes the following groups of top-level domains:
- infrastructure top-level domain (ARPA)
- generic top-level domains (gTLD)
- restricted generic top-level domains (grTLD)
- sponsored top-level domains (sTLD)
- country code top-level domains (ccTLD)
- test top-level domains (tTLD)