Use `XXX.localhost` instead of `XXX.local`

[provokateurin]

XXX.localhost is set up on most linux systems to already resolve to 127.0.0.1, so adding the record to /etc/hosts would no longer be needed. Of course this can be changed in the env file, but I think this is a more useful default setup.

[juliusknorr]

Good point. Let's change that for new setups.

[kesselb]

I migrated my dev setup from .internal to .localhost a while ago and really like it! No longer dealing with /etc/hosts is a relief.

This week, I wanted to access my dev setup from a virtual machine and therefore created a Host-Only network. Host got 192.168.56.1 and guest 192.168.56.3. Inside the guest, I added an entry 192.168.56.1 server.localhost to the hosts file. Ping for server.localhost worked and also showed the right ip address, but Firefox and Chromium wouldn't open the page.

The reason is that most browsers and also newer curl versions added a special handling for localhost: https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2021/05/31/curl-localhost-as-a-local-host/

[provokateurin]

So it doesn't work if you add the entry manually to the hosts file? I've used .localhost domains a few times already and never had any issues, but I also didn't add the hosts entry manually (libnss does it automatically).

[kesselb]

As long as server.localhost resolves to 127.0.0.x everything is all right. It becomes tricky if your .localhost domain should resolve a different IP address (e.g. 192.168.56.1 in my case).

I'm aware it's an edge case and using .localhost by default is nevertheless a good idea, but I would love to see a brief hint in the readme if we flip to .localhost about this limitation.

[kesselb]

More complex setup's should go with .internal as per https://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/proceeding/proposed-top-level-domain-string-for-private-use-24-01-2024