Definition

canonical name

A canonical name is the properly denoted host name of a computer or network server. A CNAME specifies an alias or nickname for a canonical host name record in a domain name system (DNS) database. In programming, the term "canonical" means "according to the rules." The DNS is the standard method of defining the locations of sites on the Internet, particularly Web sites.

Related glossary terms: dynamic link library (DLL), HPFS (High Performance File System), Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), ISA (Industry Standard Architecture), ASPI driver (Advanced SCSI Programming Interface driver), incident management (IcM), red screen of death, PXE (Preboot Execution Environment), Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS), MetaFrame

This was last updated in July 2007

Posted by: Margaret Rouse

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- Google explains how CNAMEs are related to aliases and DNS records.
- ZyTrax demonstrates how canonical names are used.

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