.\" Copyright (c) 1983 Regents of the University of California.
.\" All rights reserved. The Berkeley software License Agreement
.\" specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution.
.\" @(#)htable.8 6.3 (Berkeley) %G%
htable \- convert NIC standard format host tables
is used to convert host files in the format specified
in Internet RFC 810 to the format used by the network
library routines. Three files are created as a result
routines in mapping host names to addresses
routines in mapping network names to numbers.
file may be used by the routing daemon
in identifying ``passive'' Internet gateways;
are present in the current directory,
the file's contents is prepended to the
Of these, only the gateways file is interpreted.
This allows sites to maintain local aliases and
entries which are not normally present in the
Only one gateway to each network will be placed in the gateways file;
a gateway listed in the localgateways file will override any in the
If the gateways file is to be used,
a list of networks to which the host is directly connected
The networks, separated by commas,
may be given by name or in Internet-standard dot notation,
arpanet,128.32,local-ether-net.
which are directly connected to one of the networks specified,
or which can be reached from another gateway on a connected net.
option is given with a list of networks (in the same format as for
these networks will be treated as ``local,''
and information about hosts on local networks is
taken only from the localhosts file.
Entries for local hosts from the main database will be omitted.
This allows the localhosts file to completely override
any entries in the input file.
is best used in conjunction with the
program which retrieves the NIC database from a host.
If the name-domain system provided network name mapping well as host
would no longer be needed.