Noob questions: subnet uniqueness, routing
edit: nevermind, guys. It's not my server that I'm reaching.
I have a server with a static IPv6 address. While troubleshooting some connection issues I found out that I can reach my server over the internet with just the subnet prefix followed by ::1, i.e. the server is reachable via 2001:ab1:1234:567::1. I thought that only zero blocks can be skipped like that (the full address contains no zeros). Does it mean that the subnet prefix itself is unique which makes it reachable? Can I use this abbreviated address everywhere instead of the full one, i.e. in AAAA records? Why does it work with ::1 but not other suffixes? What is special about ::1 in this case? Can I rely on the short address staying routable as long as the full one is? ip addr on the server shows the full address only on the interface.