hostctl

Manage your /etc/hosts like a pro!

This tool gives you more control over the use of your hosts file. You can have multiple profiles and enable/disable as you need.

Why?

It is a tedious task to handle the hosts file by editing manually. With this tool you can automate some aspects to do it cleaner and quick.

Installation

Pre-built binary

Go to release page and download the binary you need.

Arch Linux

hostctl has an AUR package: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/hostctl/. You can install it using your AUR helper of choice.

Example:

yay -Sy hostctl

HomeBrew

brew install guumaster/tap/hostctl

Snap

_ Doc to be added after being published and tested _. See Issue #14 for helping with this.

Scoop

scoop bucket add hostctl https://github.com/guumaster/hostctl.git
scoop install hostctl

NOTE: If you also installed sudo with Scoop, you can run the examples below with sudo instead of starting your terminal as administrator.

Features

• Manage groups of host names by profile.
• Enable/disable complete profiles.
• add/remove groups of host names.
• add profiles directly from a .etchosts file that you can add to your vcs.

Sample Usage

Linux/Mac/Windows and permissions

The tool recognize your system and use the right hosts file, it will use /etc/hosts on Linux/Mac and C:/Windows/System32/Drivers/etc/hosts on Windows.

SUDO/ADMIN: You will need permissions for any action that modify hosts file, add sudo to the commands below when needed. If you are on windows, make sure you run it as administrator.

WARNING: it should work on any system. It's tested on Ubuntu and Windows 10. If you can confirm it works on other system, please let me know here.

Usage

 _     _  _____  _______ _______ _______ _______       
 |_____| |     | |______    |    |          |    |     
 |     | |_____| ______|    |    |_____     |    |_____

hostctl is a CLI tool to manage your hosts file with ease. 
You can have multiple profiles, enable/disable exactly what
you need each time with a simple interface.

Usage:
  hostctl [command]

Available Commands:
  add         Add content to a profile in your hosts file.
  backup      Creates a backup copy of your hosts file
  disable     Disable a profile from your hosts file.
  enable      Enable a profile on your hosts file.
  help        Help about any command
  list        Shows a detailed list of profiles on your hosts file.
  remove      Remove a profile from your hosts file.
  restore     Restore hosts file content from a backup file.
  set         Set content to a profile in your hosts file.

Flags:
  -h, --help               help for hostctl
      --host-file string   Hosts file path (default "/etc/hosts")
  -p, --profile string     Choose a profile

Use "hostctl [command] --help" for more information about a command.

List profiles

$> hostctl list

// Output:
+---------+--------+----------------+----------------------------+
| PROFILE | STATUS |       IP       |           DOMAIN           |
+---------+--------+----------------+----------------------------+
| default | on     | 127.0.0.1      | localhost                  |
| default | on     | 127.0.1.1      | some-existing.local        |
| default | on     | ::1            | ip6-localhost              |
+---------+--------+----------------+----------------------------+
| lite    | on     | 192.168.1.51   | jupyter.toolkit-lite.local |
+---------+--------+----------------+----------------------------+
| toolkit | on     | 192.168.99.119 | app.toolkit.local          |
| toolkit | on     | 192.168.99.119 | gitea.toolkit.local        |
| toolkit | on     | 192.168.99.119 | jupyter.toolkit.local      |
+---------+--------+----------------+----------------------------+

Add new profile

You can store routing as a separate file and add it to the global hosts file when you need.

Say you have this routing file on any of your projects:

# File stored in /path/to/some/project/.etchosts
127.0.0.1 web.my-awesome-project.local 
127.0.0.1 api.my-awesome-project.local 

You can add that content as a profile with this command:

$>hostctl set -p awesome --from /path/to/some/project/.etchosts

// Output:
+---------+--------+----------------+------------------------------+
| PROFILE | STATUS |       IP       |            DOMAIN            |
+---------+--------+----------------+------------------------------+
| default | on     | 127.0.0.1      | localhost                    |
| default | on     | 127.0.1.1      | some-existing.local          |
| default | on     | ::1            | ip6-localhost                |
+---------+--------+----------------+------------------------------+
| another | on     | 192.168.1.51   | jupyter.toolkit-lite.local   |
+---------+--------+----------------+------------------------------+
| awesome | on     | 127.0.0.1      | web.my-awesome-project.local |
| awesome | on     | 127.0.0.1      | api.my-awesome-project.local |
+---------+--------+----------------+------------------------------+

Enable/Disable profile

You can enable/disable any profile, the routing will react to it state. Disabling a profile does not remove the content from the hosts file, this way you can re-enable it later on.

$> hostctl disable -p awesome

// Output:
+---------+--------+----------------+------------------------------+
| PROFILE | STATUS |       IP       |            DOMAIN            |
+---------+--------+----------------+------------------------------+
...
+---------+--------+----------------+------------------------------+
| awesome | off    | 127.0.0.1      | web.my-awesome-project.local |
| awesome | off    | 127.0.0.1      | api.my-awesome-project.local |
+---------+--------+----------------+------------------------------+

$> hostctl enable -p awesome

// Output:
+---------+--------+----------------+------------------------------+
| PROFILE | STATUS |       IP       |            DOMAIN            |
+---------+--------+----------------+------------------------------+
...
+---------+--------+----------------+------------------------------+
| awesome | on     | 127.0.0.1      | web.my-awesome-project.local |
| awesome | on     | 127.0.0.1      | api.my-awesome-project.local |
+---------+--------+----------------+------------------------------+

Remove a profile

If you want to completely remove a profile from the hosts file you can run:

$> hostctl remove -p awesome

// Output:
+---------+--------+----------------+------------------------------+
| PROFILE | STATUS |       IP       |            DOMAIN            |
+---------+--------+----------------+------------------------------+
| default | on     | 127.0.0.1      | localhost                    |
| default | on     | 127.0.1.1      | some-existing.local          |
| default | on     | ::1            | ip6-localhost                |
+---------+--------+----------------+------------------------------+
| another | off    | 192.168.1.51   | jupyter.toolkit-lite.local   |
+---------+--------+----------------+------------------------------+

Backup hosts file

You can save a copy of your hosts file with this command:

hostctl backup --path /tmp/

It would create a file /tmp/hosts.20200314 with the content of your hosts file.

Restore a hosts file

You can restore a previous backup of your hosts file with this command:

hostctl restore --from /tmp/hosts.20200314

It would overwrite your hosts file with the content of your backup.

TODO

Features that I'd like to add:

• hostctl from-k8s -n namespace
• hostctl from-minikube -n namespace
• hostctl set ip IP [-p profile]
• hostctl set domains dom1,dom2,etc [-p profile]
• hostctl add domains dom1,dom2 [-p profile]
• hostctl rm domains dom1,dom2 [-p profile]

References

• Dependencies:

  • spf13/cobra
  • guumaster/tablewriter

• Inspiration:

  • txn2/txeh: CLI for /etc/hosts management

LICENSE

MIT license

Author(s)

• guumaster

Contributors ✨

Thanks goes to these wonderful people (emoji key):

George Kontridze 💻

Pacodes ⚠️ 💻

BarbUk 💻

Brett Mack 💻

This project follows the all-contributors specification. Contributions of any kind welcome!