[COFF] Pondering the hosts file

[steffen at sdaoden.eu (Steffen Nurpmeso)]

Grant Taylor wrote in
 <02d10a8e-2f39-4f88-f4c9-ecb295e0f01e at spamtrap.tnetconsulting.net>:
 |Hi,
 |
 |I'm not sure where this message best fits; TUHS, COFF, or Internet 
 |History, so please forgive me if this list is not the best location.
 |
 |I'm discussing the hosts file with someone and was wondering if there's 
 |any historical documentation around it's format and what should and 
 |should not be entered in the file.
 |
 |I've read the current man page on Gentoo Linux, but suspect that it's 
 |far from authoritative.  I'm hoping that someone can point me to 
 |something more authoritative to the hosts file's format, guidelines 
 |around entering data, and how it's supposed to function.
 |
 |A couple of sticking points in the other discussion revolve around how 
 |many entries a host is supposed to have in the hosts file and any 
 |ramifications for having a host appear as an alias on multiple lines / 
 |entries.  To whit, how correct / incorrect is the following:
 |
 |192.0.2.1     host.example.net        host
 |127.0.0.1     localhost       host.example.net        host

Address, "official name", aliases.
And as many as you want i'd say.  It is just that an alias might
be hidden and never be found (if actually hidden).  This is at
least how i interpreted it.

--steffen
|
|Der Kragenbaer,                The moon bear,
|der holt sich munter           he cheerfully and one by one
|einen nach dem anderen runter  wa.ks himself off
|(By Robert Gernhardt)