HOSTS file

HOSTS file

A text file in a Unix network that provides name resolution of host names to IP addresses. In years past, HOSTS files, which contain a host name and corresponding IP address on each line, were placed on clients and servers and manually updated. HOSTS files have long since given way to network-based naming systems such as DNS; however, they are still used with specific machines to override such naming systems for testing purposes and special situations. See DNS and LMHOSTS file.

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(networking)

hosts file - A text file on a networked computer that was used to associate host names with IP addresses. A hosts file contains lines consisting of whitespace-separated fields giving an IP address followed by list of host names or aliases associated with that address. The name resolution library software can use this file to look up the IP address for a host name. The hosts file is "/etc/hosts" on Unix and "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts" or "lmhosts" on Microsoft Windows, Hosts files have now been almost entirely replaced by DNS, in which distributed servers provide the same information. A hosts file can still be used to override DNS for testing purposes or other special situations.