#Hosts file editor for mac how to#

But basically it's a list with IP addresses on the left and domain names on the right. So there's not much in it to begin with and yours may look a little different depending on what operating system you started out with on your Mac. And then the host file can be found at slash ETC slash hosts. And then one of the many text editors available in terminal we will use nano. Your going to do it using Sudo first because you have to do this as the route user. Once you have route user enabled you can go into terminal and edit this host file.

#Hosts file editor for mac how to#

To see how to do that you go to this support page at Apple. So in order to do this your going to have to have enabled the route user. So you add an entry in there specifically for the site your working on to point to the exact web server that your developing on.

It will map a domain name to an IP address if you wanted to. The host file is basically your little DNS. Well there is a way to actually have your Mac point to the new server without having the rest of the internet do it.

Or perhaps your actually moving the domain name to a new server and you want to test it out before you do the big DNS switch over for the entire internet. So say your setting up a new site at a new server and the DNS hasn't yet resolved to appoint the domain name to that server. So this is a tip especially for web designers. On today's episode I'm going to show you how to edit your hosts file. Video Transcript: Hi this is Gary with MacMost Now. Check out MacMost Now 507: Editing Your Hosts File at YouTube for closed captioning and more options.