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Accepted
Nicky Hajal
Asked: 2012-03-20 18:14:09 +0800 CST

Is there a GUI for /etc/hosts that I can use?

  • 772

I want to be able to easily and frequently edit my hosts file from a quick GUI. Any one know of one that exists?

Thanks!

gui hosts

5 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    As already answered hosts is just a text file so you can use any text editor. Since it exists in /etc and you cannot edit as general user you need to use sudo. The graphical frontend to sudo is gksu. So basically doing gksu YOUR_GRAPHICAL_EDITOR /etc/hosts will do it OR you can use terminal with nano and vim. I recommend nano as it is quite easy.

    sudo nano /etc/hosts

    In order to ease the command you can use alias.

    So edit your .bashrc file in your $HOME. i.e. In your terminal do:

    nano .bashrc

    Add

    alias edithosts='gksu YOUR_GRAPHICAL_EDITOR /etc/hosts' OR 'sudo nano/vim/vi /etc/hosts'

    and save it with Ctrl+x. And do source ~/.bashrc. Then you can use edithosts from commandline to use it.

    If you use unity you may use quicklist as well What Custom Launchers and Unity Quicklists are available?

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  2. sagarchalise's answer is great, I also discovered gnome-network-admin which includes a pretty nice interface to edit hosts

    sudo apt install gnome-network-admin
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  3. It's not a special editor as such, but you could always Alt+F2 gksudo gedit /etc/hosts.

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  4. try one from electron apps - it has GUI, but need some manipulation with node.js installation - githab README.md has detailed info. https://electron.atom.io/apps/?q=hosts

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  5. Install this addon in firefox >>HostADmin 1.3.6 It is awesome !!!

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