brainwipe / Hosts

C# .NET Core automation for managing the Windows Hosts file

Hosts

C# .NET Core automation for managing the Windows 7,8,10 Hosts file. Add/remove and list host maps.

There is no nuget package for this code, it's intended to be used via the command line or by copying the code from the brainwipe.hosts library into your own cli tooling.

Command Line Options

To run, you need to use dotnet core. Build the solution and navigate to /bin/debug/netcoreapp2.0.

List

dotnet hosts.dll list

Gives (comments are ignored):

127.0.0.1   localhost.com
127.0.0.1   myotherdomain.com

Add Map

dotnet hosts.dll add "127.1.1.1 newdomain.com"

Remove Map

You have two options, by IP or by domain. If you do by IP then all the maps with the IP are removed.

dotnet hosts.dll remove -i "127.1.1.1"

dotnet hosts.dll remove -n "newdomain.com"

You can also remove all hosts. This is useful if you prefer tear-down and build-up processes.

dotnet hosts.dll remove -a

Using the Code

Copy /brainwipe.hosts/HostMap.cs and /brainwipe.hosts/HostsFile.cs into your application. You can then use the HostsFile class directly.

If you need inspiration then check out how it's used in brainwipe.hosts.cli/Commands/.

Examples

HostsFile.Add("127.0.0.1 mynewdomain.com");
HostsFile.RemoveByIp("127.0.0.1");
HostsFile.RemoveByHostName("mynewdomain.com");
HostsFile.RemoveAll();

foreach (var entry in HostsFile.Entries)
{
   Debug.WriteLine(entry.ToString());
}