Resolve one hostname to another, using hosts file

Question

I know how to resolve a hostname to an IP address using my hosts file eg

1.2.3.4 example.com 

but is it possible to resolve a hostname to another

example.com example1.com 

with a hosts file? Reason being, Im testing a new site, hosting uses Virtual hosts, so there are multiple domains on the IP address. ServerAlias in Apache is not an option either.

Any help appreciated!

Thanks Stephen

Answer 1

No.

You can add multiple hostnames to the hostfile, for example: 1.2.3.4 hostname1 hostname2

But every time you look up a name or address, youll just get the whole line back. Or was that what you wanted?

Answer 2

You can't resolve one domain to another, but you can have multiple hostnames for one IP like this:

1.2.3.4 example.com
1.2.3.4 example1.com
1.2.3.4 example.net
1.2.3.4 example.net