⚠️ DEPRECATED

This crate has been renamed to hostie.

Please use hostie instead of locdev.

hostie 🛠️

hostie is a handy CLI tool that simplifies the process of adding, removing, and listing entries in your system's hosts file (/etc/hosts on Unix, C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts on Windows).

Perfect for developers who need to quickly map hostnames to IP addresses for local development, testing, or debugging. You no longer need to deal with manual and error-prone editing. Now, it's as simple as running a command.

Why use hostie?

Instead of manually editing your hosts file like this:

sudo nano /etc/hosts
# Navigate to the right line, be careful not to break anything...
# Add: 127.0.0.1 myapp.local
# Save and exit

Just do this:

sudo hostie add 127.0.0.1 myapp.local

Features

• 🚀 Simple commands: Add, remove, and list hosts entries with ease
• 🛡️ Safe operations: Prevents accidental removal of system entries like localhost
• 🎯 Precise matching: Only exact IP+hostname combinations are affected
• 🌍 Cross-platform: Works on macOS, Linux, and Windows
• 📝 Preserves formatting: Keeps your hosts file comments and structure intact
• ✅ Duplicate prevention: Won't add the same hostname twice
• 🧪 Well-tested: 24 comprehensive tests ensure reliability

Installation

Download Compiled Binaries

You can download the compiled binaries for hostie from the GitHub Releases page. Choose the binary that corresponds to your operating system and architecture, and place it in a directory included in your system's PATH environment variable.

Install with Cargo

To install hostie using Cargo, you'll need to have Rust installed on your system. Once Rust is installed, you can install hostie with Cargo:

cargo install hostie

Usage

hostie [COMMAND]

Commands

• add <ip> <hostname>: Add an entry to the hosts file with the specified IP and hostname
• remove <ip> <hostname>: Remove the entry with the specified IP and hostname from the hosts file
• list: Print the current entries in the hosts file

Examples

Basic Usage

Add a local development site:

sudo hostie add 127.0.0.1 myapp.local

Remove an entry when you're done:

sudo hostie remove 127.0.0.1 myapp.local

List all current entries:

hostie list

Common Development Scenarios

Set up multiple local services:

sudo hostie add 127.0.0.1 api.local
sudo hostie add 127.0.0.1 frontend.local
sudo hostie add 127.0.0.1 admin.local

Point to a staging server:

sudo hostie add 192.168.1.100 staging.mycompany.com

Override a production domain for testing:

sudo hostie add 127.0.0.1 api.production.com

Block a website (point to localhost):

sudo hostie add 127.0.0.1 distracting-website.com

Sample Output

$ hostie list
127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 myapp.local
192.168.1.100 staging.mycompany.com
::1 localhost

What hostie does for you

• ✅ Prevents duplicates: Won't add the same hostname twice
• ✅ Protects system entries: Can't accidentally remove localhost
• ✅ Preserves formatting: Keeps comments and empty lines intact
• ✅ Cross-platform: Works on macOS, Linux, and Windows
• ✅ Safe operations: Only modifies exact matches, no false positives

Note

You need to use sudo to execute the add and remove commands, as the hosts file requires administrator privileges to modify its contents.

License

This project is available under the MIT License.