System Administration Guide: Naming and Directory Services (FNS and NIS+)

hosts Table

The hosts table associates the names of all the machines in a domain with their IP addresses. The machines are usually also NIS+ clients, but they don't have to be. Other tables, such as bootparams, group, and netgroup, rely on the network names stored in this table. They use them to assign other attributes, such as home directories and group memberships, to individual machines. The hosts table has four columns:

Table 23–7 hosts Table

Column 

Description 

Addr 

The machine's IP address (network number plus machine ID number) 

Cname 

The machine's official name 

Name 

A name used in place of the host name to identify the machine 

Comment 

An optional comment about the entry