date and time created 90/06/23 17:20:37 by trent
[unix-history] / usr / src / share / man / man5 / hosts.5
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1.\" Copyright (c) 1983 The Regents of the University of California.
2.\" All rights reserved.
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4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms are permitted
5.\" provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
6.\" duplicated in all such forms and that any documentation,
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8.\" distribution and use acknowledge that the software was developed
9.\" by the University of California, Berkeley. The name of the
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12.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR
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14.\" WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
15.\"
16.\" @(#)hosts.5 6.4 (Berkeley) %G%
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8612bf3c 18.TH HOSTS 5 ""
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19.UC 5
20.SH NAME
21hosts \- host name data base
22.SH DESCRIPTION
23The
24.I hosts
25file contains information regarding
df1ff6ff 26the known hosts on the network.
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27For each host a single line should be present
28with the following information:
29.HP 10
30official host name
31.br
32.ns
33.HP 10
34Internet address
35.br
36.ns
37.HP 10
38aliases
39.PP
40Items are separated by any number of blanks and/or
41tab characters. A ``#'' indicates the beginning of
42a comment; characters up to the end of the line are
43not interpreted by routines which search the file.
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44.PP
45When using the name server
46.IR named (8),
47this file provides a backup when the name server
48is not running.
49For the name server, it is suggested that only a few addresses
50be included in this file.
51These include address for the local interfaces that
52.IR ifconfig (8C)
53needs at boot time and a few machines on the local network.
54.PP
55This file may be created from the official host
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56data base maintained at the Network Information Control
57Center (NIC), though local changes may be required
58to bring it up to date regarding unofficial aliases
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59and/or unknown hosts. As the data base maintained at NIC
60is incomplete, use of the name server is recommend for
61sites on the DARPA Internet.
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62.PP
63Network addresses are specified in the conventional
64``.'' notation using the \fIinet_addr\fP() routine
65from the Internet address manipulation library,
66.IR inet (3N).
67Host names may contain any printable
68character other than a field delimiter, newline,
69or comment character.
70.SH FILES
71/etc/hosts
72.SH "SEE ALSO"
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73gethostbyname(3N), ifconfig(8C), named(8)
74.br
75Name Server Operations Guide for BIND