When using proxy_pass, can /etc/hosts be used to resolve domain names instead of "resolver"?

Question

Can /etc/hosts be used instead of resolver when using proxy_pass?

I need to perform a proxy_pass to the same nginx machine. Is there a way to resolve the domains using the machine's /etc/hosts file instead of specifying a DNS server thru the "resolver" property?

This will save me the additional hops needed to reach the same server. I have tried setting up the internal IP mapped to the DNS in /etc/hosts file but nginx is still reading from the DNS server set in the resolver property. Or is there a way to make the HTTPProxy module to consider the /etc/hosts file settings?

Thanks for any advice you could share..

This is the same question I posted in the nginx forum: http://forum.nginx.org/read.php?11,218997

Answer 1

You can get around this by installing dnsmasq and setting your resolver to 127.0.0.1. Basically this uses your local DNS as a resolver, but it only resolves what it knows about (among those things is your /etc/hosts) and forwards the rest to your default DNS.