Redirect GitHub Pages from Subdomain to the Top-Level Domain
743 words ยท 4 minutes
Short answer
Step 1
Add a new file CNAME to your GitHub Pages repository containing only one line: your top-level domain name. E.g.: example.com
Step 2
[Optional] but highly recommended
2.1: Remove all other top-level records (prefixed with @) of type A from your DNS configuration.
2.2: Remove a CNAME record for the second-level domain www if it is present.
Step 3
Add these 5 entries to the very top of your DNS configuration:
@ A 185.199.108.153
@ A 185.199.109.153
@ A 185.199.110.153
@ A 185.199.111.153
www CNAME your_github_username.github.io.
Replace your_github_username
with your actual GitHub username.
Step 4
Wait for your DNS changes to propagate. DNS changes aren't effective immediately. They can take up to a full day to propagate.
Long answer
This issue has two sides. One is the DNS configuration itself. Another one is the way GitHub Pages will forward HTTP requests.
We need to know a few things to understand what GitHub is trying to say in their documentation.
DNS Entry Types
There are two types of DNS records which interest us: CNAME and A.
A
is also known as Apex
or sometimes as root entry
. It forwards requests to a specified fixed IP address. CNAME
entry forwards requests to a specified URL (actual valid plain text URL, not an IP address).
DNS Load balancing
GitHub has one central URL address which accepts all DNS requests for GitHub Pages: http://username.github.io
. That URL is resolved to different IP addresses based on your geographical location. Website hosted on GitHub Pages is a simple collection of HTML
, CSS
and JS
files. GitHub distributes these files to different servers across the globe. So that when your browser sends a request from Europe, it receives data from a server in Europe. The same is valid for the requests from Asia and the USA.
What GitHub is trying to say
Since A
records in DNS must contain IP addresses, and they must be either 185.199.108.153
or 185.199.109.153
or 185.199.110.153
or 185.199.111.153
, there is no way to forward requests to a server located somewhere in Europe or Asia. Your website hosted at GitHub Pages will be downloaded from a central GitHub Pages server. There is a minor risk that if GitHub Pages DNS servers (x.x.x.153
) are down for some reason, all custom domains which use fixed GitHub Pages IP addresses will not be accessible (their DNS requests will not be resolvable).
That is why GitHub strongly suggests to either use a second-level domain for your GitHub Pages (e.g. blog.example.com
) or use a DNS service provider that supports a record type ALIAS
that acts as A
record but forwards request to a URL address (e.g. username.github.io
) instead of a fixed IP address.
How GitHub Pages treats HTTP requests
After a DNS request for your_github_username.github.io
is resolved into an IP address, e.g. 185.199.108.153
your browser sends an HTTP request to that server with an HTTP header Host
. Below are curl
examples that load the same website (these examples might not work if you are behind a proxy server):
This way GitHub Pages servers know which user website to serve.
GitHub Pages server will automatically redirect HTTP requests to the top-level domain if your
CNAME
file containsexample.com
butwww.example.com
is requested.The same is valid if your
CNAME
file containswww.example.com
but the headerHost
in theHTTP
request containsexample.com
.
Why can't I add a CNAME
record entry that accepts a top-level request (@
) to my DNS configuration?
Quote from the GitHub Pages documentation:
Warning: Do not create a CNAME record for your custom apex domain! Doing so may cause issues with other services, such as email, on that domain.
References:
[1]: Setting up a custom domain with GitHub Pages
[2]: My custom domain isn't working
[3]: Cannot access my GitHub Pages website by IP Address
[4]: How do I set up GitHub Pages to redirect DNS requests from a subdomain (e.g. www) to the top-level domain (TLD, Apex record)?