What is the purpose of a DNS record of type CNAME?

A CNAME (Canonical Name) DNS record is used to create an alias for one domain name to another. It indicates that one domain is an alias of another, and when a request is made to the first, the IP address associated with the second will be returned.

For example, if you have a main domain example.com and want www.example.com to point to the same server, you can create a CNAME record for www pointing to example.com. This is convenient for domain management and simplifies address updates, as only the target domain changes, and aliases automatically follow it.