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I would like to setup Ubuntu One to sync a hosts file in my home directory between my machines. Ideally I would setup all my local web development URLs there and it would just sync between devices. But I'm wondering if it's possible for me to setup /etc/hosts so that it includes a file from my user's home directory.

Ben
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1 Answers1

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But I'm wondering if it's possible for me to setup /etc/hosts so that it includes a file from my user's home directory.

The /etc/hosts file is for mapping hostnames to IP addresses before DNS can be referenced. So the answer is no.

I would like to setup Ubuntu One to sync a hosts file in my home directory between my machines.

Would a hard link in your directory to /etc/hosts not accomplish that? Something like this (where shared-directory will be your synch folder): 

cd ~/shared-directory/
ln -i /etc/hosts hosts

The only difference in approach is that you then share 1 of your actual host files with all the other systems. And not a copy in your home directory.

Community
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Rinzwind
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  • Along the same line of thinking with this, it might be worth checking out how some developers handle their "dotfiles" (my personal favorite is [Holman's from GitHub](https://github.com/holman/dotfiles). They generally keep a repository/shared folder somewhere with the files, then symlink them into their home in the filesystem (so reverse Rinzwind's symlink code to be `ln -i hosts /etc/hosts`). – Shauna Mar 20 '13 at 13:04