We have RFCs for a reason, so people follow predictable behavior everywhere. And so you don’t build up a ton of work/customization and then suddenly have a surprise like this. Worse, you embed that custom design into a system and then leave and someone else needs to fix that mess.

.test is what you should have been using, precisely for this reason.

Nope. Testing is a meaningful term in software development, and what I was using it for doesn't entirely fit into my concept of testing. Much of it was just development.

/etc/hosts doesn't accept wildcards, so you probably didn't catch much. This was settled a long time ago:

https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2606

.test is only one more letter.

That's why I was editing it with vim. I manually added the two dozen or so names and put them in my team's git repo.

.test doesn't convey the meaning I intended.

Ok, but you are wrong, just like the folks who insist on using clever DoD IP addresses instead of RFC 1918.

At least you aren't directly accusing me of failing to RTFM!

I've been vaguely aware of what's in that RFC, but I don't think reserving those TLDs for local stuff means that other TLDs are off limits. I certainly don't use example.com for all example emails. Developer happiness comes first.

I got burned by going with domains outside that doc, but I think the blame goes on Google, not on those who decided to use .dev without making it an official standard. I think if it was an official standard Google might still have muscled their way into getting .dev, and I wouldn't be surprised if they do the same with .test in the future.

I'm a developer too, I always use example.com because accidentally triggering bogus outbound mail from corporate IP addresses can make a mess for Operations.

And Google gets baseless accusations because you feel entitled to something. Enjoy the feeling, you're entitled to it.