This is a simple Perl script for managing multiple hostfile configurations on *NIX systems.

To get started, create a directory /etc/hostfiles and place one or more files in the directory containing hostfile fragments.  The fragment filename will be used to tell the hostfile manager what to enable or disable.

Using the hostfile manager is simple.  It has two primary options: --enable and --disable.  You can specify each multiple times or pass comma-separated lists of fragment filenames.

For example, to enable a hostfile fragment called "staging":

$ hostfiles --enable staging

You can ask for the status of the available hostfile fragments by passing the --status flag:

$ hostfiles --status
+ local
$

The first character of the status ouput will be ' ' if the fragment is not enabled, '+' if it is enabled, and '*' if it is enabled and has been modified in /etc/hosts.

Passing the --interactive flag will ignore any --enable, --disable, or --status options and present a list of hostfile fragments that can be enabled or disabled interactively.