Hosts manager with focus on simplicity and support for adword blocker lists. You can add, remove, disable, enable entries in the hosts file; works better with dnsmasq for advanced control of the DNS A record connections and implicit configuration for wildcard domains.
The hosts file is a computer file used by an operating system to map hostnames to IP addresses. The hosts file is a plain text file, and is conventionally named hosts. The DNS implementation automated the publication process and provided instantaneous and dynamic hostname resolution in the rapidly growing network. In modern operating systems, the hosts file remains an alternative name resolution mechanism, configurable often as part of facilities such as the Name Service Switch as either the primary method or as a fallback method.
In some operating systems, the contents of the hosts file is used preferentially to other name resolution methods, such as the DNS, but many systems implement name service switches to provide customization. Unlike remote DNS resolvers, the hosts file is under the direct control of the local computer's administrator.
More info at WikiPedia Hosts File
When the program is executed it reads the entire hosts file and parses its entries to separate the IP address, the domain, and the possible aliases; additionally it detects if the line is commented and assigns a special flag to say that the entry is currently disabled. You can export the entire file in JSON format using the export command or export only the entries that match certain text using the search command like this:
$ hostman -search example
$ hostman -search example -export
The program uses the /etc/hosts as the default file path to operate all the actions available, if you have multiple configuration files or want to test the commands with a dummy file you can use the config command to force the program to read a different host file like this:
$ hostman -config /tmp/hosts -export
$ hostman -config /tmp/hosts -search example
$ hostman -config /tmp/hosts -search example -export
Adding new entries to the hosts file requires a special format, a new entry needs to have the IP address followed by the @ symbol and the domain that is going to be associated to it. Note that the address accepts a wide range of characters to support IPv6 and it does not checks the validity of the host in any point, this is intentional as the connection to certain IP blocks will respond with server failures as they are not properly routed by the DNS server; you must check the integrity of the IP and TLD by yourself. Additionally you can append domain aliases separating them with commas like this:
$ hostman -add ff02::5@example.com
$ hostman -add 127.0.0.1@example.com
$ hostman -add 127.0.0.1@example.com,example.org
$ hostman -add 127.0.0.1@example.com,example.org,example.net
The removal of host entries requires the execution of the search command, this is to avoid unexpected modifications as the user can inspect the entries that will be affected before the program overrides the file. The program will remove all the entries found with a simple string matching function, if you want to be more specific with the results add more characters like this:
$ hostman -search example -remove
$ hostman -search example.com -remove
$ hostman -search foobar.example.com -remove
Note that the program does not creates backups before the removal and/or addition of one or more entries, you have to be careful with the data that is added to the hosts file as it may break your Internet connection depending on the configuration of your personal computer or server. If you want to delete a host entry temporarily it is suggested to use the disable command instead which will comment the entries that match the query from the search results, and the enable command to uncomment the same entries like this:
$ hostman -search 127.0.0.1 -enable
$ hostman -search 127.0.0.1 -disable
$ hostman -search example.com -disable
Some of the operations executed by the program require write permissions on the hosts file depending on its location, you may need to suffix some of the commands with sudo or add your current user account to the admin group. Alternatively you can add an alias that executes sudo automatically for every command like this:
alias hostman='sudo env "PATH=$PATH" hostman $@'
- Basic management of hosts settings
- Custom TLD domains for local development
- Private connection to non-public jailed IP addresses
- Automate parental control for school and/or study time
- Automated blocking of obstructive websites during office hours