When the DNS client subsystem receives a DNS requests, it attempts to resolve the host name or IP address by first checking the /etc/hosts file. If the file contains a valid entry to resolve the specified host name or IP address, the DNS client subsystem processes the DNS request.
Entries in /etc/hosts must be in the following format:
IPv4_address hostname alias alias ...
where:
- IPv4_address must be in the first position
- hostname is a fully-qualified domain name and must be in the second position.
- aliases are optional and follow the address and hostname entries.
For example:
192.169.147.135 ginger.acme.com ginger
Note: Service (SRV) record queries cannot be satisfied from the /etc/hosts file.
If resolution by /etc/hosts is unsuccessful, the DNS subsystem attempts to select a DNS server that can be used to resolve the host name or IP address (as described in
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