1HOSTS(5) 386BSD Programmer's Manual HOSTS(5) 2 3NNAAMMEE 4 hhoossttss - host name data base 5 6DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN 7 The hhoossttss file contains information regarding the known hosts on the net- 8 work. For each host a single line should be present with the following 9 information: 10 11 official host name 12 Internet address 13 aliases 14 15 Items are separated by any number of blanks and/or tab characters. A 16 ``#'' indicates the beginning of a comment; characters up to the end of 17 the line are not interpreted by routines which search the file. 18 19 When using the name server named(8), this file provides a backup when 20 the name server is not running. For the name server, it is suggested 21 that only a few addresses be included in this file. These include ad- 22 dress for the local interfaces that ifconfig(8) needs at boot time and a 23 few machines on the local network. 24 25 This file may be created from the official host data base maintained at 26 the Network Information Control Center (NIC), though local changes may be 27 required to bring it up to date regarding unofficial aliases and/or un- 28 known hosts. As the data base maintained at NIC is incomplete, use of 29 the name server is recommend for sites on the DARPA Internet. 30 31 Network addresses are specified in the conventional ``.'' (dot) notation 32 using the inet_addr(3) routine from the Internet address manipulation li- 33 brary, inet(3). Host names may contain any printable character other 34 than a field delimiter, newline, or comment character. 35 36FFIILLEESS 37 /etc/hosts The hhoossttss file resides in /_e_t_c. 38 39SSEEEE AALLSSOO 40 gethostbyname(3), ifconfig(8), named(8) 41 42 _N_a_m_e _S_e_r_v_e_r _O_p_e_r_a_t_i_o_n_s _G_u_i_d_e _f_o_r _B_I_N_D. 43 44HHIISSTTOORRYY 45 The hhoossttss file format appeared in 4.2BSD. 46 474.2 Berkeley Distribution May 10, 1991 2 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67