Removing an entry from /etc/hosts on a Mac
I was testing a freshly deployed web site for a client the other day before they’d setup their DNS entry, and added the server to my Mac’s /etc/hosts file. It looked something like this:
208.75.85.73 www.clientsite.comWhen I’d finished my testing I removed the entry from /etc/hosts. On most Unix systems that’s enough to eradicate all traces of your meddling, but not on the Mac. Any IP address that you add to /etc/hosts gets cached by the operating system.
After a bit of poking around I discovered lookupd. On Tiger you can flush the cache by entering this in the terminal:
lookupd -flushcacheOn Leopard the lookupd command has been replaced with dscacheutil:
dscacheutil -flushcacheUpdate: The HostsWidget Dashboard widget appears to solve the same problem rather well.
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