LOC Record Location

The LOC record (Location) stores geographic location information in DNS. It can specify the latitude, longitude, altitude, and precision of a location associated with a domain name. While not widely used, it's defined in RFC 1876.

What Is a LOC Record?

LOC records express the physical location of a domain in terms of:

• Latitude — North/South position
• Longitude — East/West position
• Altitude — Height above sea level
• Size — Diameter of the location sphere
• Horizontal precision — Accuracy of lat/long
• Vertical precision — Accuracy of altitude

LOC Record Format

example.com.    3600    IN    LOC    37 46 30.000 N 122 25 10.000 W 10m 100m 10m 10m

LOC Record Fields

Use Cases

While LOC records are rarely used in practice, potential applications include:

• Data center locations — Document server physical locations
• Geographic routing — (Theoretical) route to nearest server
• Network documentation — Record equipment locations
• Mapping applications — Display server locations on maps

Example Locations

; Company headquarters
hq.example.com.    LOC    40 44 55 N 73 59 10 W 50m

; Data center
dc1.example.com.   LOC    37 46 30 N 122 25 10 W 10m

; European office
eu.example.com.    LOC    51 30 26 N 0 7 39 W 15m

Why LOC Records Are Rare

• Privacy concerns — Revealing physical locations may be undesirable
• Limited application support — Few applications query LOC records
• Better alternatives — Geographic routing uses other methods (anycast, GeoDNS)
• Dynamic infrastructure — Cloud/CDN makes fixed locations less relevant

LOC Record Best Practices

• Consider privacy — Think carefully before publishing precise locations.
• Use for documentation — More useful for internal documentation than routing.
• Keep updated — Remove records if equipment moves.
• Be accurate — If using LOC, ensure coordinates are correct.

Querying LOC Records

# Using dig
dig example.com LOC

# Using host
host -t LOC example.com

Related Record Types

• A Record — Server IP address
• TXT Record — Arbitrary text data
• SRV Record — Service location