hosts

Short script to automate editing your hosts file

Usage

I'm running the script locally on a Windows machine, running hosts.py from the location I've checked out the code with a batch script I've named hosts.bat:

@echo off
python C:\Users\[username]\Documents\GitHub\hosts\hosts.py %*

The rest of the documentation assumes you have the Python script aliased to a hosts command.

Lookup Hosts File Entry

Lookup the current IP address for a given host name, according to the hosts file:

~:$ hosts --get hostname
hostname 192.168.1.1

Lookup the current IP address for any number of given host names, according to the hosts file:

~:$ hosts --get hostname1 hostname2 hostname3
hostname1 192.168.1.13
hostname2 192.168.1.14
hostname3 192.168.1.15

Add a Hosts File Entry

Set a host to resolve to a particular IP address (will overwrite your current hosts file with new contents):

~:$ hosts --set 192.168.1.10 hostname

~:$ hosts --get hostname
hostname 192.168.1.10

Set any number of hosts to resolve to a particular IP address (will overwrite your current hosts file with new contents):

~:$ hosts --set 192.168.1.10 hostname1 hostname2 hostname3

~:$ hosts --get hostname1 hostname2 hostname3
hostname1 192.168.1.10
hostname2 192.168.1.10
hostname3 192.168.1.10

Add a Hosts File Entry Based On Existing Entry

Set a host to resolve to whatever IP address the hosts file resolves another host name to:

~:$ hosts --get hostname
hostname 192.168.1.10

~:$ hosts --alias hostname hostname1

~:$ hosts --get hostname hostname1
hostname 192.168.1.10
hostname1 192.168.1.10

Other Notes

Any modifications to the hosts made by the script will completely overwrite the file. . I recommend backing it up before making substantial changes.

Add the --dry option to any opertion that overwrites the hosts files to instead output the results to the screen without modifying the actual hosts file.