According to the root zone file
, the single .root entry was replaced in 2006 with just vrsn-end-of-zone-marker-dummy-record, to be reintroduced later in 2006 in its original form.
The existence of the record may be observed by querying for a TXT record for the domain name. On systems with the dig diagnostic tool installed, the query could be formulated as:
dig vrsn-end-of-zone-marker-dummy-record.root in any
or on Windows systems using the following command:
nslookup -type=any vrsn-end-of-zone-marker-dummy-record.root
This entry returns the word "plenus", which is Latin for "full" or "complete". This may be a marker to signify the end of the zone file.
There is also a .root TLD in Open Root Server Network's rootzone named ORSN-END-OF-ZONE-MARKER-DUMMY-RECORD.ROOT. This entry returns the word "".