How to do multiple wildcard subdomains in a single zone file?

Question

Is this valid use of wildcard CNAME records?

@       A     208.77.188.166
stage   A     208.77.188.165
dev     A     208.77.188.167

*       CNAME @
*.stage CNAME stage
*.dev   CNAME dev

Or should I just do this instead?

*       A     208.77.188.166
*.stage A     208.77.188.165
*.dev   A     208.77.188.167

Can I do this on GoDaddy?
Can I do this on TUCOWS?

Answer 1

Either version appears syntactically correct, but personally I prefer the second way of doing it so as to avoid using CNAMEs. They have their place, but the restrictions on using them as the target of some other DNS types may be an issue.