Mac OS X ignoring hosts file [closed]

Question

Mac seems to be ignoring new changes to my hosts file. Older changes work without a problem. I've spent the past 4 hours trying to figure this one out. Help!

I have folders for each site that I develop in my /Sites folder. For example, several folders are named:

wp.dev
daf.dev
test.dev

I run MAMP, set the Apache Port to 80 and the MySQL Port to 3306 (so that I don't have to add the port to the address bar in a browser).

I have edited my /private/etc/hosts file as follows:

##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting.  Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1   localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1             localhost 


127.0.0.1   wp.dev
127.0.0.1   daf.dev
127.0.0.1   test.dev
fe80::1%lo0 localhost

Here's the kicker: wp.dev and daf.dev have been around for over a month. They resolve without a problem in my browser. I added test.dev this morning. When I type it into a browser it simply searches "test.dev" as opposed to resolving a domain.

I can ping any of the above domains and they go to 127.0.0.1, including test.dev.

For what it's worth, I've tried virtualhostsx with the same problem. I also run dscacheutil --flushcache and restart MAMP when making changes.

I need to kick off development on a new site, and this is driving me crazy.

Dominant

restarting the mac didn't help? – Ardeha

Have you tried with http://test.dev/ rather than test.dev, or testing with another browser than Chrome? (I assume you're using Chrome, because it's the only browser I know on Mac OS that will launch a search if the user doesn't type an actual URL) – Ladybird

Wrong site. Please ask this again at AskDifferent. – Masturbation

@chris_mac, consider writing @[username] to answer to comments, it makes it easier to know who you're answering to. – Ladybird

Thanks, @Ladybird - I'm still figuring my way around stackoverflow. Chrome and Firefox give the same prob, even with an http:// preceding. – Dominant

I've seen a situation where two spaces (' ') between the IP and the Hostname caused Mac to totally ignore that entry in the hosts file. Food for thought. – Lowney

I was stuck on this for days, then i found a file /etc/hosts~orig which i used to restore the hosts file, added my new entries, and now everything is working. – Agora

Answer 1

Try putting all your entries at the top of the file.

Not really logical, but worth a try.

Trifolium

Strange, but it worked. Hope this helps someone else as well, and thanks! – Dominant

omg thank you so much. that was driving me nuts. i did notice when i deleted the last entry, though, that there was a bunch of extra space in the line beneath it. that shouldn't make a difference but maybe the spaces was throwing the last entry off? at any rate, you saved me hours of headache. – Wedlock

That answer is incorrect. The file was probably saved in a non ASCII format. When you edit it and add them to the top and re-save it, you were saving back to a ASCII format. Hence simply opening it and saving it over would have had the same affect. – Woodrum

i think @SteffanPerry is right. Moving to first line didn't help me, but then I found a file /etc/hosts~orig which i used to restore the hosts file, added my new entries, and now everything is working. – Agora