COHERENT manpages
This page displays the COHERENT manpage for hosts [Names and addresses of hosts on the local network].
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hosts -- System Administration Names and addresses of hosts on the local network /etc/hosts The file /etc/hosts gives the name and Internet-protocol (IP) address of remote hosts with which your system can communicate via a network. Each line within hosts describes one host on the network. A description of a host begins with that host's IP address, in normal ``dot'' notation. This is followed by its name and any aliases it has -- that is, other names that also refer to that host. For example, consider the following: 666.16.16.27 accounting acctbeancounters 666.16.16.2 president boss 666.16.3.5 engineering As you can see, a given host can have more than one alias. Aliases need not be terse; however, you should not use an alias name that you would not want the users of that host to see. An IP address can appear on more than one line. For example, entry 137.229.10.39 raven raven.alaska raven.alaska.edu can also be rendered as: 137.229.10.39 raven 137.229.10.39 raven.alaska 137.229.10.39 raven.alaska.edu You may find this to be more legible. However, if you need to change this host's IP address, you must be careful to change every entry, or trouble will result. /etc/hosts must include the following standard entries: 127.1 localhost 127.0.0.1 loopback When you specify only two parts of an Internet address, the second part represents the final three bytes of that address. Thus, the addresses 127.1 and 127.0.0.1 are, in fact, the same address. The address 127.1 by convention names the local host. Packets sent to this address return to the local host: they do not go onto the Ethernet. This feature is useful in debugging software. The host names localhost and loopback are also conventional names for your local host. /etc/hosts should also contain a separate entry for your local host's Internet address and name. You set the name for your system when you installed COHERENT. To change your system's name, edit the file /etc/uucpname. See Also Adminstering COHERENT, hosts.equiv, inetd.conf, networks, protocols, services, uucpname