NODATA
A DNS reply with response code NOERROR but no records in the answer: the name exists, but has no record of the type requested.
What it means
NODATA has no response code of its own. A resolver infers it from a successful reply with an empty answer section (RFC 2308). Querying the TXT records of a name that only has an A record gives NODATA.
The distinction from NXDOMAIN matters when debugging. NXDOMAIN for _dmarc.example.com means nothing is there; NODATA for example.com's MX means the domain exists but has no MX records, so the implicit MX rule applies. SPF counts both as void lookups.
Like NXDOMAIN, NODATA answers are cached according to the zone's SOA record.
Related terms
On this site
Sources
What this definition rests on. The wording is ours; the facts are theirs.
- RFC 2308: Negative Caching of DNS Queries (DNS NCACHE), section 2.2rfc-editor.org
- RFC 9499: DNS Terminology, section 3rfc-editor.org
All 432 terms in the glossaryThe wiki: blocklists and bounce codes