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.

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