[CentOS] /etc/hosts not resolving hostnames

[John R Pierce]

On 04/08/11 11:24 AM, Johan Martinez wrote:
> I have modified /etc/hosts file with IP address and hostname entries. 
> However, host command is returning 'Host vhost1.example.com 
> <http://vhost1.example.com> not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)'. Also, apache is 
> returning error on start as '[error] (EAI 2)Name or service not known: 
> Could not resolve host name vhost1.example.com 
> <http://vhost1.example.com> -- ignoring!' . The ssh worked fine and 
> resolved the hostname correctly (ssh from same system to itself - just 
> for test). Am I missing something here? I thought /etc/hosts will be 
> referred for all lookups. Any help??

the 'hosts' command (as well as dig, and nslookup) go directly to DNS, 
they do not look at /etc/hosts or nsswitch.conf for that matter.   
Apache may well go to DNS also, since your local /etc/hosts file is not 
recognized by any systems outside the localhost, and apache IS a server.