| 1 | .\" Copyright (c) 1983 Regents of the University of California. |
| 2 | .\" All rights reserved. The Berkeley software License Agreement |
| 3 | .\" specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution. |
| 4 | .\" |
| 5 | .\" @(#)hosts.5 6.2 (Berkeley) %G% |
| 6 | .\" |
| 7 | .TH HOSTS 5 "" |
| 8 | .UC 5 |
| 9 | .SH NAME |
| 10 | hosts \- host name data base |
| 11 | .SH DESCRIPTION |
| 12 | The |
| 13 | .I hosts |
| 14 | file contains information regarding |
| 15 | the known hosts on the DARPA Internet. |
| 16 | For each host a single line should be present |
| 17 | with the following information: |
| 18 | .HP 10 |
| 19 | official host name |
| 20 | .br |
| 21 | .ns |
| 22 | .HP 10 |
| 23 | Internet address |
| 24 | .br |
| 25 | .ns |
| 26 | .HP 10 |
| 27 | aliases |
| 28 | .PP |
| 29 | Items are separated by any number of blanks and/or |
| 30 | tab characters. A ``#'' indicates the beginning of |
| 31 | a comment; characters up to the end of the line are |
| 32 | not interpreted by routines which search the file. |
| 33 | This file is normally created from the official host |
| 34 | data base maintained at the Network Information Control |
| 35 | Center (NIC), though local changes may be required |
| 36 | to bring it up to date regarding unofficial aliases |
| 37 | and/or unknown hosts. |
| 38 | .PP |
| 39 | Network addresses are specified in the conventional |
| 40 | ``.'' notation using the \fIinet_addr\fP() routine |
| 41 | from the Internet address manipulation library, |
| 42 | .IR inet (3N). |
| 43 | Host names may contain any printable |
| 44 | character other than a field delimiter, newline, |
| 45 | or comment character. |
| 46 | .PP |
| 47 | When using the name server this file is used as a backup for when |
| 48 | .IR named (8) |
| 49 | is not running. |
| 50 | For the name server it is suggested that only a few addresses |
| 51 | be included in this file. |
| 52 | These include address for the local interfaces that |
| 53 | .IR ifconfig (8C) |
| 54 | needs at boot time and a few machines on the local network. |
| 55 | .SH FILES |
| 56 | /etc/hosts |
| 57 | .SH "SEE ALSO" |
| 58 | gethostent(3N), ifconfig(8C), named(8), Name Server Operations Guide for BIND |