hosts(4)hosts(4)NAMEhosts - host name data base
DESCRIPTION
The file associates Internet (IP) addresses with official host names
and aliases. This allows a user to refer to a host by a symbolic name
instead of an Internet address.
This file contain all addresses for local interfaces that needs at boot
time (see ifconfig(1M)). When using the name server (see named(1M)),
or Network Information Service (see ypserv(1M)), this file often serves
as a backup when the server is not running. In such circumstances, it
is a common practice for to contain a few addresses of machines on the
local network.
should contain a single line for each host with the following informa‐
tion:
internet_address official_host_name aliases
The internet_address can be an IPv4 or IPv6 address specified in the
conventional Internet dot notation. See inet(3N) or inet6(3N) for more
information on Internet address manipulation routines.
aliases are other names by which a host is known. They can substitute
for the official_host_name in most commands. For example:
In this example, users can use remote login on by using the command:
instead of
If your system is in a domain naming environment, an official host name
consists of the full domain extended host name. For example:
(space or tab character). Items are separated by any number or combi‐
nation of space or tab characters (blanks). A character indicates the
beginning of a comment. Characters from the to the end of the line are
not interpreted by routines that search the file. Trailing blanks are
allowed at the end of a line.
For the Internet, this file is normally created from the official host
database maintained at the Network Information Control Center (NIC),
although local changes may be required to bring it up to date with
respect to unofficial aliases and/or unknown hosts.
Host names can contain any printable character other than a white
space, newline, or comment character.
EXAMPLES
See
AUTHOR
was developed by the University of California, Berkeley.
SEE ALSOgethostent(3N), inet(3N), nsswitch.conf(4).
hosts(4)
