NAME

hosts − host name data base

DESCRIPTION

The hosts file contains information on the known hosts on the DARPA Internet.  For each host a single line should be present with the following information (each parameter is separated by a blank):

Internet_address official_host_name [alias] ... 

Internet_address is a 4-byte address; each byte is in decimal or hexidecimal notation and separated by a period. 

official_host_name is the name of the system associated with this Internet address.  This is an arbitrary string, preferably long enough to keep hosts unique on the network.  Typically some "name space" is chosen, such as alabama, alakska, arkansas ... or washington, adams, jefferson ... 

alias is another name for the same system.  Typically this is a shorter name (al, ak, ar ... or george, john, tom), and may not be unique accross the network.  A single host can have more than one alias .  For example, the host "alaska" could have the following address and alias:

129.0.9.5 alaska ak

FILES

/etc/hosts

Version 2.3  —  July 04, 1985