1.\" $OpenBSD: ethers.5,v 1.18 2007/05/31 19:19:58 jmc Exp $ 2.\" $NetBSD: ethers.5,v 1.2 1994/11/30 19:31:16 jtc Exp $ 3.\" 4.\" Written by Roland McGrath <roland@frob.com>. Public domain. 5.\" 6.Dd $Mdocdate: May 31 2007 $ 7.Dt ETHERS 5 8.Os 9.Sh NAME 10.Nm ethers 11.Nd Ethernet host name database 12.Sh DESCRIPTION 13The 14.Nm 15file maps Ethernet addresses to host names. 16Lines consist of an address and a host name, separated by any number 17of blanks and/or tab characters. 18A 19.Ql # 20indicates the beginning of a comment; characters up to the end of 21the line are not interpreted by routines which search the file. 22.Pp 23Ethernet addresses are expressed as six hexadecimal numbers separated by 24colons. 25The functions described in 26.Xr ethers 3 27can read and produce this format. 28.Pp 29The 30.Nm 31file has support for YP functionality, 32which is enabled by specifying a 33.Ql + 34alone on a line. 35.Sh FILES 36.Bl -tag -width /etc/ethers -compact 37.It Pa /etc/ethers 38.El 39.Sh SEE ALSO 40.Xr ethers 3 , 41.Xr diskless 8 42.Sh HISTORY 43The 44.Nm 45file format was adopted from SunOS and appeared in 46.Nx 470.9b. 48.Sh BUGS 49A name server should be used instead of a static file. 50.Pp 51Lines in 52.Pa /etc/ethers 53are limited to 54.Dv BUFSIZ 55characters 56.Pq currently 1024 . 57Longer lines will be ignored. 58