hosts.net

hosts.net is a simple library that enables developers to easily develop applications that can programmatically manipulate the hosts file across various platforms.

installation

dotnet add package hosts.net

usage

Editing the hosts file on unix requires sudo permission, and likewise administrator is required on Windows.

On Unix-like Systems: hosts.net will default to the /etc/hosts file.

On Windows Systems: the library will default to the C:/Windows/System32/drivers/etc/hosts file. The library automatically handles Windows' Access Control List. If any issues arise from this please file an issue.

Demo Code:

using System.Linq;
using System.Net;
using hosts.net;

// open the file
var file = Hosts.OpenHostsFile(/* optional file path */);

// use linq to query the entries to prevent duplicate entries

if (file.Entries.Any(entry => entry.Comment is not null && entry.Comment == "Added with hosts.net")) return;

file.AddBlankEntry()
    .SetComment("Added with hosts.net");

file.AddBlankEntry()
    .SetHost(/* address */ IPAddress.Loopback, /* canonical hostname */ "non-existent.domain.n", /* optional aliases */ "non-existent.alias.n");

// other code here...

// save to the disk
file.Write();


// Result:

// # Added with hosts.net
// 127.0.0.1 non-existent.domain.n non-existent.alias.n

Removing an entry with LINQ:

file.Entries.RemoveAll(entry => entry.CanonicalHostname == "encodeous.ca");

Adding an empty line:

file.AddBlankEntry();

Reading & Printing all of the lines:

Console.WriteLine(string.Join('\n', 
    file.Entries.Select(x => x.RawString))
);