For each host a single line should be present with the following information:
Internet address
official host name
aliases
HISTORY
The hosts file format appeared in 4.2BSD.
On Mar 11, 2021, at 9:14 AM, Grant Taylor via TUHS
<tuhs(a)minnie.tuhs.org> wrote:
Hi,
I'm not sure where this message best fits; TUHS, COFF, or Internet History, so
please forgive me if this list is not the best location.
I'm discussing the hosts file with someone and was wondering if there's any
historical documentation around it's format and what should and should not be entered
in the file.
I've read the current man page on Gentoo Linux, but suspect that it's far from
authoritative. I'm hoping that someone can point me to something more authoritative
to the hosts file's format, guidelines around entering data, and how it's
supposed to function.
A couple of sticking points in the other discussion revolve around how many entries a
host is supposed to have in the hosts file and any ramifications for having a host appear
as an alias on multiple lines / entries. To whit, how correct / incorrect is the
following:
192.0.2.1
host.example.net host
127.0.0.1 localhost
host.example.net host
--
Grant. . . .
unix || die