More running code: the Knot DNS resolver goes beta and it implements QNAME minimisation.
https://storify.com/KnotDNS/knot-dns-recursive-beta Here, resolving a 'dig -x' of an IPv6 address, you see the minimised requests (just "NS arpa" to the root, for instance) 02:36:39.673268 IP6 2400:8900::f03c:91ff:fe69:60d3.54216 > 2001:e30:1c1e:1::333.53: 38773% [1au] NS? aRpA. (33) 02:36:40.114074 IP6 2400:8900::f03c:91ff:fe69:60d3.59934 > 2001:dc3::35.53: 22056% [1au] NS? Ip6.aRPa. (37) 02:36:40.428545 IP6 2400:8900::f03c:91ff:fe69:60d3.47793 > 2001:500:86::86.53: 43002% [1au] NS? 2.ip6.arPA. (39) ... To protect against broken name servers which badly react to ENTs, it retries with the full QNAME when receiving a NXDOMAIN (the last line in the tcpdump output). That's questionable for privacy: 02:34:45.050913 IP 106.186.29.14.51228 > 128.175.13.17.53: 24014% [1au] A? WwW.UpENn.edU. (42) 02:34:45.227102 IP 128.175.13.17.53 > 106.186.29.14.51228: 24014*- 2/0/1 CNAME www.upenn.edu-dscg.edgesuite.net., RRSIG (270) 02:34:45.228413 IP6 2400:8900::f03c:91ff:fe69:60d3.46525 > 2001:503:231d::2:30.53: 52576% [1au] NS? edGeSUItE.NEt. (42) 02:34:45.297319 IP6 2001:503:231d::2:30.53 > 2400:8900::f03c:91ff:fe69:60d3.46525: 52576- 0/17/15 (1034) 02:34:45.298284 IP 106.186.29.14.45604 > 23.61.199.64.53: 22228 [1au] NS? EdU-DScG.EdGesUITe.nET. (51) 02:34:45.373238 IP 23.61.199.64.53 > 106.186.29.14.45604: 22228 NXDomain*- 0/1/1 (114) 02:34:45.373795 IP 106.186.29.14.34320 > 72.246.46.66.53: 1355 [1au] A? WWW.UPenN.edu-dSCG.EdgESuItE.net. (61) _______________________________________________ DNSOP mailing list DNSOP@ietf.org https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/dnsop