XHost

What is XHost?

XHost is a command line tool to manage Windows hosts file.

System Requirements

.NET Framework 3.5+

How to Use?

1. Add the containing directory of xhost.exe to PATH environment variable;
2. Open command line window (cmd.exe), type xhost -help;

Usage Samples

1. xhost -ls: List all host entries;
2. xhost -find test.com: Find the entry whose host is test.com;
3. xhost -add 127.0.0.1 test.com: Add a new entry to the hosts file;
4. xhost -update 127.0.0.1 test.com: Update the test.com entry;
5. xhost -rm test1.com: Remove host test1.com from the hosts file;
6. xhost -rm test1.com, test2.com: Remove host test1.com and test2.com from the hosts file;
7. xhost -h : Show help;

Extensibility

Custom commands can be added by writing plugins. A plugin in XHost is a class implementing XHost.Commands.ICommand. To write a plugin, you have to:

1. Write a class implementing XHost.Commands.ICommand interface;
2. Compile the plugin;
3. Drop the dll file to the Plugins folder (please create it if not exists);

Sample Plugin: NuGet Plugin

NuGet is sometimes blocked in China. In this sample plugin, we will add a host entry for nuget.org.

public class NuGetCommand : ICommand
{
    public string Name
    {
        get { return "nuget"; }
    }

    public string ShortName
    {
        get { return null; }
    }

    public string Description
    {
        get { return "Add 157.56.8.150 nuget.org to hosts file."; }
    }

    public string Usage
    {
        get { return "xhost -nuget"; }
    }

    public void Execute(CommandLine commandLine, CommandExecutionContext context)
    {
        context.Hosts.Set("157.56.8.150", "nuget.org");
        context.Hosts.Save();

        Console.WriteLine("OK");
    }
}

Note: The Description and Usage properties will be used in the help.

Then you can use xhost -nuget to add host entry for nuget.org.