hosts(4)                        TCP/IP 5.4.2                        hosts(4)


NAME
       hosts - hostname database

DESCRIPTION
       The hosts file contains information about the known hosts on the
       network.  For each host, a single line should be present with the
       following information:

           Internetaddress hostname [ aliases ] [ # comment ]

       Items are delimited by any number of blanks and/or tab characters.  A
       # character indicates the beginning of a comment; characters up to
       the end of the line are not interpreted by routines that search the
       file.

       For ARPANET systems only:  The hosts file is often created from the
       official host database maintained at the DARPA Network Information
       Center (NIC). However, local changes may be required to update the
       file for unofficial aliases and/or unknown hosts.

       Network addresses are specified in conventional dot notation for use
       by the inetaddr routine from the Internet address manipulation
       library, inet(3N).

       A hostname can be a domain name or a single component of a domain
       name; see hostname(5) for details.  A component consists of up to 24
       characters drawn from the lowercase alphabet (a-z), uppercase
       alphabet (A-Z), digits (0-9), and minus sign (-).  Periods are only
       allowed when they serve to delimit components of domain names.  No
       blank or space characters are permitted as part of a component.  No
       distinction is made between upper and lower case.  The first
       character of a component must be an alphabetic character.  The last
       character can not be a minus sign or period.  Single character names
       or nicknames are not allowed.

       If your system is using either the Network Information Service (NIS)
       or the Domain Name System (DNS), host names and address mappings are
       handled differently.  For details on NIS, see Managing ONC
       (Trademark)/NFS® and Its Facilities on the DG/UX (Trademark) System.
       For details on DNS, see Managing TCP/IP on the DG/UX (Trademark)
       System.  The svcorder file determines how name/address resolution is
       done on your system.  See the svcorder(4) manual page for details.

EXAMPLES
           85.0.0.31 hostB HOSTB #Comment
           85.0.0.32 hostC HOSTC #Greg's Office

FILES
           /etc/hosts

SEE ALSO
       gethostent(3N), svcorder(4).





Licensed material--property of copyright holder(s)                         1