Wildcards in a Windows hosts file

Question

I want to setup my local development machine so that any requests for   local are redirected to localhost  The idea is that as I develop multiple sites  I can just add vhosts to Apache called site1 local  site2 local etc  and have them all resolve to localhost  while Apache serves a different site accordingly   I am on Windows XP   I tried adding   127 0 0 1         local   to my c  windows system32 drivers etc hosts file  also tried   127 0 0 1        local   Neither of which seem to work   I know I can set them up on different port numbers  but that is a pain since it is hard to remember which port is which   I don t want to have to setup a local DNS server or anything hard  any suggestions

User · Answer

Here is the total configuration for those trying to accomplish the goal (wildcards in dev environment ie, XAMPP -- this example assumes all sites pointing to same codebase)

hosts file (add an entry)

file: %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

127.0.0.1   example.local

httpd.conf configuration (enable vhosts)

file: \XAMPP\etc\httpd.conf

# Virtual hosts
Include etc\extra\httpd-vhosts.conf

httpd-vhosts.conf configuration

file: XAMPP\etc\extra\httpd-vhosts.conf

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    DocumentRoot "\path_to_XAMPP\htdocs"
    ServerName example.local
    ServerAlias *.example.local
#    SetEnv APP_ENVIRONMENT development
#    ErrorLog "logs\example.local-error_log"
#    CustomLog "logs\example.local-access_log" common
</VirtualHost>

restart apache

create pac file:

save as whatever.pac wherever you want to and then load the file in the browser's network>proxy>auto_configuration settings (reload if you alter this)

function FindProxyForURL(url, host) {
  if (shExpMatch(host, "*example.local")) {
    return "PROXY example.local";
  }
  return "DIRECT";
}

User · Answer

This can be done using Pi-Hole  just edit the   etc hosts  and restart dns service   nano  etc hosts pihole restartdns   Example   127 0 1 1       raspberrypi 192 168 1 1     w1 dev net 192 168 1 2     w2 dev net 192 168 1 3     w3 dev net

User · Answer

While you can t add a wildcard like that  you could add the full list of sites that you need  at least for testing  that works well enough for me  in your hosts file  you just add   127 0 0 1       site1 local 127 0 0 1       site2 local 127 0 0 1       site3 local

User · Answer

I found a posting about Using the Windows Hosts File that also says  No wildcards are allowed    In the past  I have just added the additional entries to the hosts file  because  as previously said   it s not that much extra work when you already are editing the apache config file

User · Answer

To answer your question  you cannot use wildcards in the hosts file under Windows   However  if you want to only change the hosts file to make new sites work     you can configure your Apache like this and you don t have to keep editing it s config   http   postpostmodern com instructional a-smarter-mamp   Basically a quick summary based on my setup  add the following to your apache conf file    LoadModule vhost alias module modules mod vhost alias so   NameVirtualHost   80     lt Directory   xampp sites  gt        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes ExecCGI       AllowOverride All       Order allow deny       Allow from all     lt  Directory gt      lt VirtualHost   80 gt        VirtualDocumentRoot c  xampp sites  -1  -2      lt  VirtualHost gt    This allows me to add an entry like   127 0 0 1       test dev   and then make the directory  c  xampp sites dev test and place the necessary files in there and it just works   The other option is to use  lt Directory gt  tags in apache conf and reference the pages from http   localhost project

User · Answer

We have this working using wildcard DNS in our local DNS server  add an A record something like   local - gt  127 0 0 1  I think that your network settings will need to have the chosen domain suffix in the domain suffix search list for machines on the network  so you might want to replace  local with your company s internal domain  e g   int  and then add a subdomain like  localhost int to make it clear what it s for   So   localhost int would resolve to 127 0 0 1 for everybody on the network  and config file settings for all developers would  just work  if endpoints hang off that subdomain e g  site1 localhost int  site2 localhost int This is pretty much the scheme we have introduced   dnsmasq also looks nice  but I have not tried it yet  http   ihaveabackup net 2012 06 28 using-wildcards-in-the-hosts-file

User · Answer

To answer your question  you cannot use wildcards in the hosts file under Windows   However  if you want to only change the hosts file to make new sites work     you can configure your Apache like this and you don t have to keep editing it s config   http   postpostmodern com instructional a-smarter-mamp   Basically a quick summary based on my setup  add the following to your apache conf file    LoadModule vhost alias module modules mod vhost alias so   NameVirtualHost   80     lt Directory   xampp sites  gt        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes ExecCGI       AllowOverride All       Order allow deny       Allow from all     lt  Directory gt      lt VirtualHost   80 gt        VirtualDocumentRoot c  xampp sites  -1  -2      lt  VirtualHost gt    This allows me to add an entry like   127 0 0 1       test dev   and then make the directory  c  xampp sites dev test and place the necessary files in there and it just works   The other option is to use  lt Directory gt  tags in apache conf and reference the pages from http   localhost project

User · Answer

You may try AngryHosts  which provided a way to support wildcard and regular expression  Actually  it s a hosts file enhancement and management software  More features can be seen   http   angryhosts com features

User · Answer

You could talk your network administrator into setting up a domain for you  say  evilpuppetmaster hell   and having the wildcard there so that everything    evilpuppetmaster hell   resolves to your IP

User · Answer

I made this simple tool to take the place of hosts  Regular expressions are supported  https   github com stackia DNSAgent  A sample configuration                    Pattern                    NameServer    8 8 8 8                        Pattern           googlevideo   com            youtube ytimg    com              Address    203 66 168 119                        Pattern          cn             NameServer    114 114 114 114                        Pattern    baidu com             Address    127 0 0 1

User · Answer

I m using DNSChef to do that   https   thesprawl org projects dnschef   You have to download the app  in Linux or Mac you need python to run it  Windows have their own exe   You must create a ini file with your dns entries  for example    A    google com 192 0 2 1   local 127 0 0 1   devServer1 com 192 0 2 3   Then you must launch the dns application with admin privileges  sudo python dnschef py --file myfile ini -q   or in windows  runas dnschef exe --file myfile ini -q   Finally you need to setup as your only DNS your local host environment  network  interface  dns or similar or in linux  etc resolv conf    That s it

User · Answer

I could not find a prohibition in writing  but by convention  the Windows hosts file closely follows the UNIX hosts file  and you cannot put wildcard hostname references into that file   If you read the man page  it says   DESCRIPTION      The hosts file contains information regarding the known hosts on the net-      work   For each host a single line should be present with the following      information              Internet address            Official host name            Aliases   Although it does say        Host names may contain any printable character other than a field delim-      iter  newline  or comment character    that is not true from a practical level   Basically  the code that looks at the  etc hosts file does not support a wildcard entry   The workaround is to create all the entries in advance  maybe use a script to put a couple hundred entries at once

User · Answer

To add to the great suggestions already here  XIP IO is a fantastic wildcard DNS server that s publicly available         myproject 127 0 0 1 xip io  -- resolves to -- gt    127 0 0 1   other project 127 0 0 1 xip io  -- resolves to -- gt    127 0 0 1    other machine 10 0 0 1 xip io  -- resolves to -- gt    10 0 0 1    The ability to specify non-loopback addresses is fantastic for testing sites on iOS devices where you cannot access a hosts file    If you combine this with some of the Apache configuration mentioned in other answers  you can potentially add VirtualHosts with zero setup

User · Answer

I have written a simple dns proxy in Python  It will read wildcard entries in  etc hosts  See here  http   code google com p marlon-tools source browse tools dnsproxy dnsproxy py  I have tested in Linux  amp  Mac OS X  but not yet in Windows

User · Answer

Configuration for nginx config auto subdomain with Acrylic DNS Proxy     auto conf file for your nginx sites folder   server       listen 80      server name      lt branch gt      example  com      root  var www html  branch public         index index html index htm index php       charset utf-8       location             try files  uri  uri   index php is args args             location    favicon ico   access log off  log not found off        location    robots txt    access log off  log not found off         error log   var log nginx  branch error log error       sendfile off       client max body size 100m       location     php           try files  uri  index php  404         fastcgi pass php-fpm 9000         fastcgi index index php         fastcgi buffers 16 16k         fastcgi buffer size 32k         fastcgi param SCRIPT FILENAME  document root fastcgi script name         include fastcgi params             location      ht           deny all            Add to Acrylic hosts file 127 0 0 1 example com   example com and restart Acrylic service   branch - your subdomain name   Set  instead of   root  var www html  branch public    your project path

User · Answer

Acrylic DNS Proxy  free  open source  does the job  It creates a proxy DNS server  on your own computer  with its own hosts file  The hosts file accepts wildcards   Download from the offical website  http   mayakron altervista org support browse php path Acrylic amp name Home  Configuring Acrylic DNS Proxy  To configure Acrylic DNS Proxy  install it from the above link then go to    Start Programs Acrylic DNS Proxy Config Edit Custom Hosts File  AcrylicHosts txt    Add the folowing lines on the end of the file   127 0 0 1     localhost 127 0 0 1     local 127 0 0 1     lc   Restart the Acrylic DNS Proxy service    Start Programs Acrilic DNS Proxy Config Restart Acrylic Service   You will also need to adjust your DNS setting in you network interface settings    Start Control Panel  Network and Internet  Network Connections  Local Area Connection Properties TCP IPv4   Set  Use the following DNS server address    Preferred DNS Server  127 0 0 1   If you then combine this answer with jeremyasnyder s answer  using VirtualDocumentRoot  you can then automatically setup domains virtual hosts by simply creating a directory

User · Answer

I don t think that it is possible   You anyway have to modify the apache virtualroot entries every time you add a new site and location  so it s not a big work to syncronise the new name to the Windows vhost file   Update  please check the next answer and the comments on this answer  This answer is 6 years old and not correct anymore

User · Answer

You can use echoipdns for this  https   github com zapty echoipdns      By running echoipdns local  all requests for  local subdomains are redirected to 127 0 0 1  so any domain with xyz local etc will resolve to 127 0 0 1  You can use any other suffix also just replace local with name you want   Echoipdns is even more powerful  when you want to use your url from other machines in network you can still use it with zero configuration    For e g  If  your machine ip address is 192 168 1 100 you could now use a domain name xyz 192-168-1-100 local which will always resolve to 192 168 1 100  This magic is done by the echoipdns by looking at the ip address in the second part of the domain name and returning the same ip address on DNS query  You will have to run the echoipdns on the machine from which you want to access the remote system   echoipdns also can be setup as a standalone DNS proxy  so by just point to this DNS  you can now use all the above benefits without running a special command every time  and you can even use it from mobile devices   So essentially this simplifies the wildcard domain based DNS development for local as well as team environment   echoipdns works on Mac  Linux and Windows   NOTE  I am author for echoipdns

User · Answer

Editing the hosts file is less of a pain when you run  ipconfig  flushdns  from the windows command prompt  instead of restarting your computer

User · Answer

petah and Acrylic DNS Proxy is the best answer  and at the end he references the ability to do multi-site using an Apache which  jeremyasnyder describes a little further down         however  in our case we re testing a multi-tenant hosting system and so most domains we want to test go to the same virtualhost  while a couple others are directed elsewhere   So in our case  you simply use regex wildcards in the ServerAlias directive  like so     ServerAlias   foo local

User · Answer

I could not find a prohibition in writing  but by convention  the Windows hosts file closely follows the UNIX hosts file  and you cannot put wildcard hostname references into that file   If you read the man page  it says   DESCRIPTION      The hosts file contains information regarding the known hosts on the net-      work   For each host a single line should be present with the following      information              Internet address            Official host name            Aliases   Although it does say        Host names may contain any printable character other than a field delim-      iter  newline  or comment character    that is not true from a practical level   Basically  the code that looks at the  etc hosts file does not support a wildcard entry   The workaround is to create all the entries in advance  maybe use a script to put a couple hundred entries at once

User · Answer

You can use a dynamic DNS client such as http   www no-ip com  Then  with an external DNS server CNAME   mydomain com to mydomain no-ip com

[windows] Wildcards in a Windows hosts file

hosts file (add an entry)

httpd.conf configuration (enable vhosts)

httpd-vhosts.conf configuration

create pac file:

Examples related to windows

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Examples related to dns

Examples related to hosts

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